Emergency peripartum hysterectomy: A great obstetric challenge

To determine the prevalence, etiology and complications of emergency obstetric hysterectomy (EOH) at a tertiary care hospital in Karachi.

This was a retrospective cohort study which was carried out in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology Unit II, Civil Hospital Karachi from March 2015 to March 2017. All patients undergoing EOH were included in the study. Data was collected from medical files and labor room registers in accordance with ethical guidelines. Information included demographic characteristics, reasons for EOH, procedure associated morbidity and mortality. Data was recorded on a predesigned pro forma and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Macintosh, Version 18.0.

Out of 7,968 deliveries in two years, 32 patients under went EOH, (prevalence 4.01 per 1,000 deliveries). The mean age was 30.0 ± 5.2 years. Most women (75%) were multipara. The main mode of delivery was caesarean section (80%), mostly done as an emergency procedure (81%). In 10(30%) patients EOH was performed for uncontrollable hemorrhage due to uterine atony, followed by a morbidly adherent placenta (28%). Morbidity included disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) in four patients(19%) and three patients underwent repeat laparotomy for uncontrollable hemorrhage. There were three maternal deaths, giving a case-fatality index of 9.3%.

Uterine atony and morbidly adherent placenta were the main reasons for emergency obstetric hysterectomy (EOH) in our set up.