Red, orange and green Caesarean sections: a new communication tool for on-call obstetricians

To evaluate the effect of a novel communication tool, related to the degree of urgency for Caesarean sections (CSs), on the decision-to-delivery interval for emergency CS.

Red CS are very urgent cases corresponding to life-threatening maternal or foetal situations, orange CS are urgent cases and green CS are non-urgent intrapartum CS. We carried out this cohort study in a French maternity hospital. The study included all emergency Caesarean sections during two 6-month periods, before and after introduction of the code. We compared the decision-to-delivery interval of the two study periods.

Our study included 174 emergency CS. The mean decision-to-delivery interval after introduction of the code was 31.7 min, significantly shorter (p=0.02) than the 39.6 min interval before introduction of the colour code. Except for the preparation time, each time interval decreased. This included transporting the patient into the operating theatre, and the incision-to-delivery time interval.

This study suggests that the use of the three-colour code could significantly shorten the decision-to-delivery interval in emergency CS. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm this result.