The use of the vacuum extractor in a Nigerian hospital

The use of the vacuum extractor over a 5-year period is reviewed. The instrument was used on 319 occasions, with a 2.8% failure rate and a 25 per thousand corrected perinatal mortality. The maternal morbidity attributable to the use of the instrument was low. The main indications for use were to expedite labor either in the first or second stage because of maternal or fetal distress, and in the rotation and subsequent delivery of the malpositioned vertex. It was found to be particularly useful for the platypellic pelvis with an android tendency, a type rather common in Nigerian parturients.