Despite major advances in medicine, deaths due to obstetric causes still occur worldwide. Many of these deaths are preventable since they are caused by failure to recognize obstetric and non-obstetric disorders that can compromise pregnancy.
To describe the characteristics of critically-ill obstetric patients, as well as complications, interventions and maternal and fetal outcomes.
A retrospective, descriptive study of obstetric patients admitted into the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Rafael Calvo Maternity Clinic of Cartagena, Colombia, over a 28-month period was performed. Causes for admission, patient characteristics, complications by organ system, the interventions performed, and maternal and perinatal mortality were registered.
A total of 214 patients were included in the study. The mean age was 24 years (SD卤7.2). The main cause for admission was pregnancy-induced hypertension. The median length of ICU stay was 4 days (interquartile range: 2鈥? days). Of these patients, 64.5%were multiparous and only 50.5%had documented antenatal care. Fourteen percent were admitted to the ICU while still pregnant. Sixty percent of the patients required some type of intervention. The main complications were renal. Mortality was 8.4%. Of the patients who died, all were multiparous, 61.1%had no antenatal care and 27.7%were aged less than 20 years. Perinatal mortality was 26.6%.
Our ICU has a high admissions rate of obstetric patients. We found that patients with poor outcomes were multiparous, without antenatal care and required a greater number of interventions.