A 10 year retrospective review of factors associated with poor foetal outcome in patients with placenta praevia at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Placenta Praevia (PP), a placenta that is implanted in the lower uterine segment has the potential to cause severe obstetric complications including foetal death. Objective: To determine the factors associated with poor foetal outcomes in patients with placenta praevia. Method: A retrospective review of the foetal outcome of all cases of PP managed at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital over 10 years (2011 to 2021).Chi-square test or Fixer exact test as appropriate were used to determine the factors associated with the development of poor foetal outcome. P-value < 0.05 was consider statistically significant. Results: There were 26,407 deliveries during the study period out of which 166 were placenta previa; a prevalence of 0.6%. Most of the patients, 84.8% (95/112) were unbooked. The majority 50.9% (57/112) had blood loss ≥ 1000 ml and 30.4% (34/112) foetuses were of low birth weight. Low birthweight, hypotension, anaemia, unbooked status, vaginal delivery, and EBL ≥ 1000 mls were found to be significantly associated with foetal death. Conclusions: Poor foetal outcome was associated with Unbooked status, anaemia, vaginal delivery, EBL of ≥ 1000 mls, hypotension and duration of hospital stay ≥ 7 days in patients with placenta previa in our environment. Keywords: Foetal outcome; placenta praevia; poor outcome; UMTH.