Choosing wisely in obstetric anesthesia: Reexamining our practice

From the need to contain the health expenditure and reduce the abuse of diagnostic tests and procedures which do not bring substantial benefits to patients, arises the “Choosing wisely” campaign. Every scientific society that has joined the campaign has developed a “top five list” of five avoidable diagnostic/therapeutic procedures, chosen by experts based on evidenced based medicine. The “top five list” provided by the American Society of Anesthesiologist (ASA) pertains the preoperative and intraoperative practices. In this review, we examine the possibility of applying the top-five list of ASA in obstetric anesthesia, highlighting the effects of “a wise choice” in this field.