Risk factors predisposing to abruptio placentae. Maternal and fetal outcome

OBJECTIVE: Abruptio placentae is one of the leading causes of perinatal deaths. Abruptio placentae increase the neonatal morbidity and mortality. It is one of the recognized causes of low birth weight. The purpose of this study was to examine the risk factors for abruptio placentae together with the maternal and fetal outcome in a large population based data set.

METHODS: All cases of abruptio placentae presented to the Department of Obstetrics, Wad Medani Teaching Hospital, Sudan during the period January 1997 through to December 2002 were collected. All infants born to those cases were also collected and analyzed as live birth or stillbirth. The live born infants were followed for one month to detect the neonatal deaths. The study also aimed to determine the predisposing factors for abruptio placentae. The study was designed as a case control study from live, singleton births and singleton fetal death.

RESULTS: The total number of abruptio placentae collected during this period was 1028, while the total number of births during the same period was 15620 giving and incidence of 1028/15620 (6.5%) for abruptio placentae. The combined stillbirths and first month deaths were 20.2%. Abruptio placentae was associated with pre-eclampsia, diabetes, polyhydramnios and hypertension. Parity and maternal age were not associated with an increased incidence of abruption placentae.

CONCLUSION: This study had the advantage of complete ascertainment of all reported cases of abruptio placentae during a period of 6-years. We found an increased risk for abruptio placentae associated with maternal diabetes, hypertension, pre-eclampsia and polyhydramnios. We found that infants born after abruptio placentae were small for gestational age and had lower Apgar scores than the control infants. The possibility of abruptio placentae should be considered by the clinician when managing pregnant women with any of those characteristics. Abruptio placentae should be managed in centers were there is advanced maternal and neonatal facilities.