Quality of care for ruptured uterus in Sagamu, Nigeria

A retrospective study was conducted at a Nigerian tertiary hospital to assess the quality of emergency care provided to women managed for a ruptured uterus over an 11-year period. There were 76 cases of ruptured uterus and 4,770 deliveries (1.6%) during the period. Ten women died from a ruptured uterus, giving a case fatality rate of 13.2%. The mean admission-assessment interval by a senior clinician was 48.4 min. The mean decision-laparotomy interval was 6.9 h. Deviations from management protocol were noted in 66 women (86.8%) and underlying reasons were classified as patient-orientated (59.2%), medical personnel (13.2%) and administrative (22.4%) problems. Among women who died, there were more administrative problems, intraoperative and total blood losses were significantly more and preoperative haematocrit was significantly less compared with survivors. The poor quality of care for ruptured uterus in this centre is attributable to patients' financial limitations, which is compounded by administrative problems, particularly those regarding inefficient blood transfusion services. This study demonstrates the urgent need for implementation of a national health insurance scheme at this centre and reiterates the feasibility of employing detailed enquiry of peripartal circumstances to identify specific problems underlying major causes of maternal morbidity and mortality.