Differences in Blood Pressure in Infants after General Anesthesia Compared to Awake Regional Anesthesia (GAS Study - A Prospective Randomized Trial)

BACKGROUND: The General Anesthesia compared to Spinal anesthesia (GAS) study is a prospective randomized, controlled, multisite, trial designed to assess the influence of general anesthesia (GA) on neurodevelopment at 5 years of age. A secondary aim obtained from the blood pressure data of the GAS trial is to compare rates of intraoperative hypotension after anesthesia and to identify risk factors for intraoperative hypotension.METHODS: A total of 722 infants ≤60 weeks postmenstrual age undergoing inguinal herniorrhaphy were randomized to either bupivacaine regional anesthesia (RA) or sevoflurane GA. Exclusion criteria included risk factors for adverse neurodevelopmental outcome and infants born at RESULTS: The relative risk of GA compared with RA predicting any measured hypotension of CONCLUSIONS: RA reduces the incidence of hypotension and the chance of intervention to treat it compared with sevoflurane anesthesia in young infants undergoing inguinal hernia repair.