Caesarean delivery at the Federal Medical Centre Gombe: a 3-year experience

Caesarean delivery carries a higher morbidity and mortality than vaginal delivery. This first audit of caesarean delivery in our centre will be compared with previous studies around the world. Our objective is to document the indications and outcome of caesarean delivery.

This was a retrospective study of patients who had caesarean delivery in Federal Medical Centre Gombe, from January 2001 to December 2003. The biosocial characteristics, indication for surgery, booking status, number and type of caesarean deliveries, type of uterine incision, complications, and cadre of surgeon and duration of hospital stay were obtained for each patient.

264 caesarean deliveries were performed, 250 cases made the criteria for inclusion. There were 2,172 total deliveries during the study period giving a caesarean delivery rate of 12.2%. The majority, 181 (72.4%) of the patients had emergency caesarean delivery while 69 (27.6%) had elective caesarean delivery. The commonest indication for caesarean delivery was cephalopelvic disproportion (20.8%), followed by preeclampsia/eclampsia (18.8%) and ante partum haemorrhage (14.4%). Others were fetal distress (8.8%), and previous caesarean delivery (7.2%). Majority of the patients, 104 (41.6%) were booked with the Federal Medical Centre Gombe, 88 (35.2%) booked elsewhere and 58 (23.2%) were unbooked. Twenty one (8.4%) had complications of which wound infection 11 (5.2%) was the commonest morbidity encountered. There were two maternal deaths and twenty one perinatal deaths giving a maternal and perinatal mortality rates of 800/100,000 and 82/1000 respectively.

The indications for caesarean delivery in our study are comparable to findings from other parts of the world. The high emergency caesarean delivery rate among those booked elsewhere is a cause for concern. Health education could reduce the number of emergency caesarean deliveries. Consequently this might reduce the high infectious morbidity associated with the procedure in this study.