Determinants of maternal mortality in a critical care unit: A prospective analysis

An admission of a pregnant woman to an intensive care unit (ICU) is considered as an objective marker of maternal near miss. Only a few studies from the Indian subcontinent have reported on the ability of ICU scoring systems in predicting the mortality in obstetric patients.

A prospective analysis of all critically ill obstetric patients admitted to the critical care department was done.

In the period between April 2013 and September 2017, there were 101 obstetric admissions to the critical care ICU. Of these, 82 patients (81.2%) were discharged from the hospital, 18 patients (17.8%) died, and one left against medical advice. The common diagnoses seen in these patients were cardiac failure (n = 39; 38.6%); pregnancy-induced hypertension (n = 26; 25.7%); acute respiratory distress syndrome (n = 20; 19.8%); intra-abdominal sepsis (n = 19; 18.8%); tropical diseases (n = 19; 18.8%); and tuberculosis (n = 13; 12.9%).When we compared the survivors with the nonsurvivors, a higher severity of illness score and a low PaO₂/FiO₂ were found to increase the odds of death. The area of distribution under the receiver operator characteristic curve was 0.726 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.575-0.877), 0.890 (95% CI = 0.773-1.006), 0.867 (95% CI = 0.755-0.979), and 0.850 (95% CI = 0.720-0.980) for the PaO₂/FiO₂, Simplified Acute Physiology Score (SAPS) II, Sequential Organ Failure Assessment and Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (APACHE) II score, respectively, for predicting mortality. The standardized mortality ratio was better with SAPSII than with APACHE II.

Cardiac dysfunction is a leading cause of ICU admission. Obstetric patients frequently require ventilatory support, intensive hemodynamic monitoring, and blood transfusion. The APACHE II score is a good index for assessing ICU outcomes.