Clinical Trials

The purpose of this study is to describe the course of recovery over the first 3 months after elective cesarean delivery.

The hypothesis of our research is that inflammatory mediators, including alarmins, are important cause of inflammation and poor functioning of the placenta.

Our overall objective is to obtain a better understanding of the mechanisms of action of inflammatory mediators on the placenta, as well as the mechanisms underlying these effects, and to identify new therapeutic targets and investigate their effectiveness in vitro.

More specifically we aim to:

1. Determine in vitro the mechanisms and signaling pathways leading to inflammation and abnormal function of the placenta during exposure to alarmins and/or pathogenic agents (infections/pathogen associated molecular patterns) allowing the ...

Preoperative fasting and surgery can cause metabolic stress and insulin resistance. Oral carbohydrate loading has been shown to attenuate the development of insulin resistance in the non-pregnant population undergoing many different types of surgery. Pregnant women have an increase in insulin resistance and therefore may further benefit from a preoperative carbohydrate load prior to cesarean delivery. Although woman in the UK receive a carbohydrate drink prior to elective cesarean delivery, the metabolic effects of these drinks on the mother and neonate have not been evaluated.

Both hydromorphone and morphine are administered as part of spinal anesthesia to help improve pain control after cesarean delivery. In this study, the investigators are going to determine the doses of each of those medicines that provides optimal pain control to women undergoing cesarean delivery while limiting side effects related to those medicines. The investigators hypothesize that the doses of hydromorphone and morphine that provide optimal pain control without significant side effects will be 100 micrograms and 150 micrograms, respectively. The investigators further hypothesize that at each respective optimal dose, side effects will be less in the hydromorphone group.

Intrathecal (IT) opioids are commonly administered with local anesthetic during spinal anesthesia for post-Cesarean delivery analgesia. Traditionally, IT morphine has been used but the use of IT hydromorphone is growing. Our group recently found the effective dose for postoperative analgesia in 90% patients (ED90) for both IT hydromorphone and IT morphine (IRB # 13-008490). These doses that we found were 75 mcg for hydromorphone and 150 mcg for morphine. Our current proposed study would compare the duration of analgesia of IT morphine vs IT hydromorphone after elective cesarean delivery. Additionally, we will compare each drug on the incidence of nausea ...

The purpose of this study is to determine the optimum dose of Dexmedetoidine to stop shivering in 90% of patients who experience shivering during cesarean delivery. We will be using an up-down sequential allocation method with biased-coin design to determine the ED90 of dexmedetomidine for effectively treating shivering during CD.

Perioperative shivering is a commonly observed intraoperative problem during cesarean delivery (CD). The median incidence of shivering in women undergoing CD or having labor epidural analgesia has been estimated to be over 50%. Shivering can create a number of problems including: increased physiologic stress, interference with patient monitors ...

The purpose of this study is to compare the safety of performing a bilateral tubal ligation vs. bilateral salpingectomy, two procedures performed for permanent sterilization, at the time of cesarean delivery. We want to determine if performing bilateral salpingectomy at the time of cesarean delivery poses any greater risk for blood loss, as compared to a bilateral tubal ligation.

The purpose of this study is to obtain human placentas from obstetric patients giving birth at Mayo Clinic. We then plan to produce model aneurysms within the placentas using a validated methodology. Model placentas will then be used for training purposes in a microsurgical lab available to all neurosurgical residents.