The evaluation of decision-to-delivery interval in category-1 emergency cesarean section: a report of six cases

In category-1 emergency cesarean section, decision-to-delivery interval (DDI) is an important indicator for evaluating the quality of maternity care. I thus evaluated DDI and neonatal outcome in category-1 emergency cesarean section in our institution.

I collected data from the six patients undergoing category-1 emergency cesarean section performed between October 1, 2019, and December 31, 2021. The average age and gestational age were 32 years old (range, 21-42) and 34 weeks (range, 26-40), respectively. Three patients suffered from abruptio placenta and the others fetal distress. All the surgeries were performed under general anesthesia, and the average DDI was 21 min (range, 10-29). The morality was 25% in neonates whose gestational ages of >35 weeks, and that was 67% in neonates whose gestational ages of <27 weeks.

DDI was achieved within 30 min in all the patients, and the mortality of neonate might depend on gestational age.