Search

Background: The incidence of maternal cardiac arrest is rising in recent years. Medical staff generally lack the experience of performing resuscitation on pregnant patients. Maternal cardiac arrest and perimortem caesarean section simulation training was newly introduced in the Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics provider courses in Hong Kong since April 2021. Objective: To evaluate the course participants’ opinions on maternal cardiac arrest simulation training. Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted for all participants in the Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics provider course in April 2021 to assess their opinions on the usefulness of this training. Results: There were four Advanced Life Support in Obstetrics provider courses in April 2021 with 36 participants in each course, and 137 questionnaires were received at the end of the course. The response rate was 137/144 (95.1%). After excluding the questionnaires with incomplete information, 134 questionnaires were included for final analysis. Almost all of the participants agreed that the maternal cardiac arrest simulation training could help them in their work (97.8%), could improve their knowledge and skill (98.5%) and could improve team training and co-ordination (97.0%). The majority of them (97.0%) felt more confident in managing maternal cardiac arrest after the training, and 97.8% of participants felt that the perimortem caesarean section model was useful for training. Around 80% of the participants would recommend this course to their colleagues. There were no significant differences in opinions on the usefulness of this training among participants with regard to their specialty, whether they were doctors or nurses, their years of experience and the specific hospital settings. Conclusions: Maternal cardiac arrest simulation training was highly valued by all levels of obstetric, emergency medicine and anaesthesia staff in both public and private hospitals.

Reducing maternal and perinatal mortality is a global objective. Hong Kong is a city with low maternal and perinatal mortality but little is known about the trend and causes of these deaths in this high-income city. We analyzed the maternal death, stillbirth and neonatal death since 1946 in Hong Kong.Data were extracted from vital statistics, based on the number of registered deaths and births, provided by the Department of Health, the Government of the HKSAR. The annual change rate of mortality was evaluated by regression analysis. Contextual factors were collected to assess the association with mortality.Between 1946 and 2017, the stillbirth rate (per 1,000 total births) reduced from 21·5 to 2·4; early and late neonatal deaths (per 1,000 live births) reduced from 14·1 and 18·1 to 0·7 and 0·4 in 2017, respectively. The maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births) declined from 125 to 1·8.The causes of maternal and perinatal deaths were available since 1981 and 1980 respectively. The leading causes of death were thromboembolism (37·0%) and obstetric haemorrhage (30·4%) for maternal death; congenital problem (30·1%) and prematurity (29·0%) for neonatal death. No data on causes of stillbirth were available. No specific shift of pattern was observed in the causes of maternal and neonatal death with time. There were no cases of maternal death due to sepsis and only 2 cases (2·2%) of maternal deaths due to indirect cause.The maternal and perinatal death have reduced significantly in Hong Kong and maintained at the lowest level globally. Indirect maternal death and sepsis were unusual causes of maternal deaths. Use of ICD-PM stillbirth classification, setting up a maternal death confidential enquiry and adding pregnancy checkbox could be the next step to identify and categorize hidden burden.Nil.

Background. Intrauterine balloon tamponade (IUBT) and compression sutures have been widely used in recent years in the management of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH). However, there is scant literature directly comparing the clinical scenarios that led to the discriminant selection of these management modalities and the direct clinical outcomes. The purpose of this study is to compare the patient characteristics and clinical risk factors that led to the use of IUBT and compression sutures in the management of major PPH as well as the immediate outcome in a retrospective cohort. Methods. Patients who had IUBT or compression sutures applied due to major PPH (>1000 ml) from 2014 to 2018 in a single obstetric unit were recruited. The patient characteristics and clinical outcome of the two groups were compared. Results. A total of 67 patients had IUBT and 29 patients had compression sutures applied as the first uterine sparing technique. Apart from more vaginal deliveries (25.4% vs. 3.5%) in the IUBT group compared to compression sutures, there were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of patient characteristics. The IUBT group had a slightly higher blood loss at the start of the uterine sparing procedure (239 ml, p = 0.049 ) and received more transfusions, despite no differences in the total blood loss, hemogloblin level, incidence of coagulopathy, and intensive care unit admission between the two groups. There was no significant difference in the overall success rate between IUBT and compression sutures to control PPH without additional surgical intervention or hysterectomy (73.1% vs. 55.1%, p = 0.15 ) or the success rate for PPH due to uterine atony (32.8% vs. 20.7%), though IUBT apparently performed better than compression sutures in cases of placenta praevia (77.3% vs. 16.7%, p = 0.01 ). Blood loss > 1.5 l at the start of the procedure, presence of placenta accreta, and presence of coagulopathy were found to be significant poor prognostic factors for both procedures to control PPH. Conclusions. There were no dominating patient characteristics that favoured the selection of either IUBT or compression sutures in the management of severe PPH except for the mode of delivery. Both procedures had equally high overall success rates to control PPH, but IUBT performed better in placenta praevia cases as compared to compression sutures.

Background Postpartum haemorrhage from vaginal lacerations can occasionally be refractory to suturing and vaginal packing. Bakri uterine balloon has been widely adopted to stop uterine bleeding, but its use to stop bleeding in vaginal lacerations and its possible complications have seldom been reported. Case presentation We report a patient who had vacuum delivery for fetal distress and subsequently had postpartum hemorrhage due to previous caesarean uterine scar rupture and multiple vaginal lacerations. The severe bleeding persisted despite total abdominal hysterectomy, pelvic embolization and vaginal gauze packing, but was finally controlled by a Bakri balloon tamponade inserted into the vagina. The patient suffered from severe stress incontinence after delivery. The possible use of balloon tamponade in vaginal lacerations and the different types of vaginal balloons that are available in the market for this purpose are reviewed. The possible causes leading to stress incontinence is reported to alert the obstetrician that such management is not free of complications. Conclusion The use of Bakri balloon can help to control bleeding in severe vaginal lacerations that are unresponsive to traditional vaginal gauze packing. Further studies are needed to evaluate the risks of stress incontinence as a possible complication of vaginal balloon tamponade.

Objective To evaluate the local incidence of orofacial cleft (OFC) encountered in fetal morphology scan and prenatal diagnosis, genetic etiology of fetuses with or without other structural abnormalities, and their pregnancy outcomes. Design Retrospective cohort study. Setting Two maternal fetal medicine units, tertiary hospitals, Hong Kong. Participants All pregnant women with antenatal diagnosis of fetal OFC between January 2016 and December 2020 (N = 66). Results OFC has an incidence of 0.13% among pregnancies in Hong Kong and 28.8% (19/66) were syndromic cleft that exhibited other fetal structural anomalies. There were 55 cases (84.6%) who opted for invasive prenatal diagnostic testing. Genetic defects were identified in 25.8% (17/66) of this cohort, including 14 pathogenic variants. The detection rate in the syndromic cases is 68.4% (13/19) which was significantly higher than 8.5% (4/47) among non-syndromic cases. Aneuploidies would be the most common cause, accounting for 9.1% (6/66). Chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) provided an incremental diagnostic yield of 6.1% compared to conventional karyotyping. A total of 29 live births including 3 cases of a variant of uncertain significance and 26 cases without genetic abnormalities detected have continued pregnancy to birth. There were 87.5% (21/24) without detectable pathogenic genetic abnormality reported good long-term outcomes. The chance of OFC fetuses having a good long-term outcome was significantly higher if no genomic variant was detected ( P Conclusions Invasive prenatal tests with CMA should be offered to pregnancies with OFC regardless of the type. It has provided incremental diagnostic yield over conventional karyotyping and helped in prenatal and genetic counseling. A negative result in non-syndromic OFC favors couples to keep the pregnancy.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the value of clinical and ultrasound risk factors in predicting severe postpartum haemorrhage (PPH) (≥1.5 L) in pregnancies undergoing caesarean section for placenta praevia. This cohort consists of all cases of placenta praevia undergoing caesarean delivery over a period of 5 years in a service unit. Patients and their delivery data were retrieved from an obstetric database. Ultrasound features were prospectively recorded before caesarean section. The incidence of caesarean section for placenta praevia was 0.98% (

Background The use of intrauterine balloon tamponade to manage postpartum hemorrhage is increasing. However, there is lack of studies on the menstrual and reproductive outcomes after such treatment. The purpose of this study is to explore the menstrual and reproductive outcomes for patients who had been managed by intrauterine balloon tamponade for severe postpartum hemorrhage in her index pregnancy. Methods All patients who had delivered in United Christian Hospital from January 2011 to June 2016 with severe postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) (blood loss> = 1 L) were identified by the labour ward delivery registry and a comprehensive obstetric database. Patients who had intrauterine balloon tamponade inserted were compared with those managed solely by uterotonic agents as controls. Patients who had hysterectomy or additional procedures performed, such as compression sutures or uterine artery embolization were excluded from both groups. A questionnaire on menses, fertility and reproductive outcomes was mailed to both groups of patients. Those that had not replied within 4 weeks would receive a telephone survey. Results A total of 39 patients in the balloon tamponade group and 161 patients in the control group were recruited, which represented 87.0% of all eligible patients within the study period. The median follow up period was 45 months. All patients in the balloon tamponade group had return of menses after delivery. The majority of the patients (87.2%) in the balloon tamponade group had normal menstrual patterns in the 12 months after the index delivery as well as in the most recent 12 months. After excluding the patients with contraception, the subsequent pregnancy rate was 42.9% (9/21) in the balloon tamponade group compared to 45.9% (28/61) in the control group (p = 0.81). Among the 9 subsequent pregnancies in the balloon tamponade group, there were two miscarriages, one scar pregnancy, one induced abortion, while the remaining five were normal pregnancies with full term deliveries without intrauterine growth restriction. The majority of patients replied that they were satisfied with using Bakri balloon for PPH management in their index pregnancy. Conclusions Intrauterine balloon tamponade for the management of severe PPH appeared to pose little adverse effects on subsequent menstrual and reproductive function. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12884-018-2085-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objective To examine maternal and neonatal outcomes of gestational proteinuria, and to identify maternal characteristics for progression to pre-eclampsia. Study design Retrospective cohort. Included all pregnant women who delivered between Jan 2014–Feb 2017 with new onset proteinuria in a single obstetric unit. Demographic, maternal and neonatal outcomes were compared. Results Eighteen (25%) out of 73 women with new onset gestational proteinuria developed pre-eclampsia. The incidence of gestational proteinuria was 0.54%. Compared with women that remained normotensive, those that developed hypertension had delivery at earlier gestation (p = .02), increased risk of fetal growth restriction (p = .01) and lower newborn birthweight (p = .002). Maximal proteinuria and fetal growth restriction were independent factors associated with development of pre-eclampsia. In particular, high proteinuria level ≥ 2 g/d constitute a major predictor for progression (p = .03). Conclusion Increased vigilance for antenatal surveillance is important in women with gestational proteinuria as a substantial portion progress to pre-eclampsia. Serial growth scan and proteinuria assay are suggested to predict possible pre-eclampsia development.

The aim of this study was to review the indications for caesarean delivery of second twins after vaginal delivery of a first twin (combined delivery) and the associated foetal outcomes of the second twin. Possible factors that could be employed to predict combined delivery were explored. This was a retrospective review of all twin pregnancies delivered in a tertiary maternity unit between 2000 and 2013. All twins ( =24 week gestation) with vaginal delivery of the first twin were reviewed. Of a total of 1039 pairs of twins, 441 pairs had vaginal delivery of the first twin, of which 47 (10.7%) needed combined delivery. Presentation of the second twin was found to be significantly associated with combined delivery (p .001). The odds ratio for combined delivery for breech second twin was 2.4 compared with vertex second twins while the odds ratio for transverse lie second twin was 182.8. Second twins who were delivered by combined delivery had a higher incidence of 5 min Apgar score7. The extremely high odds ratio for combined delivery for second twins in transverse lie would probably indicate that attempts at vaginal delivery of these vertex/transverse twin pregnancies would not be worthwhile. Impact statement It remains controversial in the literature whether non-vertex second twins are associated with a higher risk for combined delivery as compared to vertex second twins. Almost all previous studies have analysed the non-vertex second twins as a whole group rather than separating them into breech presentation and transverse lie. There is only one study analysing breech presentation and transverse lie of second twin separately but it has recruited only 14 patients. To our knowledge, the cohort is the largest available dataset comparing the odds ratio for combined delivery of breech and transverse lie of the second twin separately. We found that transverse lie of the second twin have extremely high rates of combined delivery with an odds ratio 182.8 and this may be ascribed to the lack of attempts to perform internal podalic version. Combined delivery is associated with higher maternal and neonatal morbidities. With such a high risk of transverse lie second twin in having combined delivery, it appears reasonable to advise women with vertex/transverse twins not to attempt vaginal delivery unless there are obstetricians who have experience in performing internal podalic version at the time of delivery. This is useful for patient counselling regarding the decision of the mode of delivery.

Background: To obtain the learning curve in determining fetal sex with the first trimester ultrasound scan. Methods: A prospective study was conducted on 400 pregnant patients to determine the fetal sex by ultrasound scan between 11–13+6 weeks of gestation. A midsagittal plane of the fetus was obtained by two sonographers who were newly trained for measuring nuchal translucency. It would be assigned as male if the fetal phallus was in the cranial direction and assigned as female if in caudal direction. The baby sex was confirmed after delivery. The accuracy of each sonographer was analyzed after every 50 ultrasound scans performed. Results: Nearly all the patients requested to be informed about the fetal sex during ultrasound. The accuracy in determining fetal sex by the two sonographers increased with the number of ultrasound scans performed. The two sonographers achieved an accuracy rate of 71.4–78% after 200 ultrasound scans performed. Among different factors which may affect the accuracy in determining fetal sex with ultrasound, a gestational age less than 12 weeks had a significantly lower accuracy than those more than 12 weeks, and male fetuses had significantly higher accuracy than female fetuses. A logistic regression model showed that these two factors remained significant in the equation (p

To review and compare the foetal outcomes and mode of delivery in patients with nuchal cord for single loop, double loops, and multiple loops.A retrospective study of 4,404 singleton term pregnancies which underwent spontaneous labour was conducted. The patients were classified into five groups: without nuchal cord, nuchal cord of any turns, nuchal cord for 1 turn, nuchal cord for 2 turns and nuchal cord for 3 turns or above. The perinatal outcomes and mode of delivery were then compared.Nuchal cord of any turns was not shown to be associated with intrauterine death, neonatal death, Apgar score7 at 1 and 5 min. Only nuchal cord for three turns or more were associated with higher incidence of meconium-stained liquor, neonatal unit admission, suspected foetal distress during labour and emergency caesarean section.Only nuchal cord for 3 turns or more was associated with higher incidence of suspected foetal distress. However, the Apgar scores were not affected. Therefore, nuchal cord of any turns was not associated with adverse foetal outcomes. Prenatal ultrasound scan for nuchal cord is, therefore, unnecessary and there should be no differences in management of nuchal cord of any turns.