Background: Post dural puncture headache (PDPH) can be developed after either spinal or epidural anesthe-sia during cesarean delivery with inci-dence of 1%.Several reports men-tioned the correlation between mater-nal obesity and the occurrence of this morbidity with conflicting results.
Objective: is to outline the impact of the maternal body mass index (BMI) on the development of PDPH in preg-nant ladies following cesarean deliv-ery.
Methods: A prospective comparative study included 80 pregnant ladies un-derwent spinal anesthesia for cesarean section. Patients were allocated into two equal groups according to their BMI with cutoff value 30 kg/m2. 40 Women with BMI 30 in group II. Both groups were compared regarding the incidence of PDPH in addition to the descriptive characters of the headache including intensity, onset time and duration.
Results: Both groups were matching in their age, gravidity and parity. In-creased body weight, height and sub-sequent BMI was observed in the se-cond group in comparison to the first group but without statistical signifi-cance. Comparison between the groups revealed significantly higher incidence (25%) of PDPH in the first group compared to (12.5%) in the se-cond one. Severity of the headache was comparable between both groups. On-set and duration of the headache did-n’t show statistical difference between the studied groups.
Conclusion: Incidence of PDPH may be increased in pregnant women un-dergoing CS in relation to lower body mass index.