Postoperative care in the caesarean intensive care unit: experience from a tertiary maternity hospital

The aim was to determine whether follow-up in the intensive care unit (ICU) for the postoperative first eight hours was beneficial for early intervention in postpartum hemorrhage.

In our hospital, all patients are admitted to the ICU for the first eight hours after cesarean section. Patients with postpartum hemorrhage after cesarean delivery who received medical and/or surgical treatment between 2016 and 2020 were reviewed in the presented study retrospectively.

All cases (n=36,396) who underwent cesarean delivery were reviewed. Three hundred and fifty-nine patients with postpartum hemorrhage were identified and included. In the study group the time between cesarean section and diagnosis of postpartum hemorrhage was 10.1±19.1 hours, and the time between cesarean section and re-laparotomy was 9.26±23.1 hours. A total of three maternal deaths occurred after cesarean section in our hospital. In the last five years, the mortality rate in patients delivering by cesarean section was 3.9 per 100,000. The incidence of postpartum hemorrhage in cesarean deliveries at our hospital was calculated to be 1.0%, and the rate of obstetric near-miss events was calculated to be 0.6 per 1000 live births.

Follow-up of patients in the ICU in the first eight postoperative hours after cesarean section may result in a lower number of re-laparotomies due to postpartum hemorrhage, a shortened interval between cesarean section and re-laparotomy, and a lower maternal mortality rate.