[Perinatal mortality 1 in Colima, Col. Case-control study]

Perinatal mortality 1 (PM1) includes deads occurred from 28th week of gestation to 1st week of extrauterine life. The aim of this study was to describe, from medical records, clinical-epidemiological characteristics of 19 perinatal mortality 19 cases and 36 controls occurred in 1998 at a General Hospital.

Interruption of the fetal-placental circulation, cardiopathy and ventricular hemorrhages were the main causes of PM1. There were no differences in cases and controls about maternal age 27.6 +/- 7 vs 28.8 +/- 5 years (p = 0.52), gestational age by amenorrhea: 39.2 +/- 1.4 vs 39.0 +/- 1.4 weeks (p = 0.82) and weight: 2892 +/- 769 vs 3352 +/- 549 g (p 0.03) respectively. In our study, the risk of PM1 was increased when history of one to four parity was present (OR = 4.67, p = 0.03) and was decreased when history of nulliparity was present (OR = 0.21, p = 0.03). Ten cases of 19 were mortinates, nine were hebdomadal deads. There was no difference in their characteristics: maternal age 26.1 +/- 5 vs 29.6 +/- 8 years (p = 0.34), gestational age 37.7 +/- 3 vs 34.1 +/- 3 weeks (p = 0.05) and weight 3025 +/- 699 vs 2780 +/- 853 g (p = 0.53) respectively. Hebdomadal death occurred 44 +/- 5 hours after their born. Results demonstrate the importance of improving prenatal attention particularly on last weeks of gestation, even in normal pregnancies.