Uterine artery suture: a preventive approach for pernicious placenta previa

Xiaodong Du1, Xiaoe Xie, Yi Wang

  • 1Department of Obstetrics, Li Shui Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Lishui, 323000, Zhejiang, China, Xiaodongdu_lishui@126.com.

Pernicious placenta previa is an obstetric complication that results in a crisis situation for many patients. Most existing options deal with the problems after delivery leading to unfavorable outcomes. To circumvent this situation, a few preventive simple surgical options have been discussed in this paper. The highlight of the approach is the application of ascending uterine artery suture that drastically reduced the amount of bleeding as compared to that observed in regular surgeries. Combined with the placenta accrete location, wedge resection and 'patch' homeostasis of the serous membrane, the surgical modifications adopted effectively reduced the need for hysterectomy thus preserving the fertility of the patients for the future. Since fetuses were safely removed within 1-2 min, the Apgar scores of the neonates were also largely unaffected.