[Surgical management of intractable postpartum haemorrhages]

Surgical management of an intractable postpartum haemorrhage after failure of medical and obstetric measures is not limited to the emergency peripartum hysterectomy. Uterine atony and abnormal placental insertions are the major causes of primary postpartum haemorrhages. Involving mostly young women, having few or no child, before with a healthy uterus, in first intention conservative option is recommended. The simplest methods must be known and be applied. It will be essentially progressive uterine arteries' ligation, which can be adapted to the majority of situations. Internal iliac arteries' ligation is a little less effective and technically more difficult to carry out. It remains interesting in obstetrical traumatic hurts, which do not concern the uterus. New and easier surgical methods, such as uterine compression or hemostatic suturing techniques have been described for which we lack experience. The quality of the result depends of the length of intervention and the cause of the bleeding. Nevertheless the main cause of failure with conservative treatments is placenta accreta. In case of failure of a conservative treatment, it would be dangerous to multiply techniques. Emergency peripartum hysterectomy then should remain the choice procedure.