Delivery, PPH, visual estimation of blood loss

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International Research Journal of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences


Visual estimation of blood loss post delivery: How accurate are we in a poor resource setting


Johnson Akuma Obuna

Innocent Okafor

Chidebe Christian Anikwe

Brown Nnamdi Ejikeme

Justus Ndulue Eze


Article Number: irjmbs.20.006  |   Pages: 24-28  |   Vol.5 (3), July 2020   |   DOI: https://doi.org/10.15739/irjmbs.20.006

 Received: March 16, 2020  Accepted: June 18, 2020  Published: July 6, 2020

Abstract

To determine how accurate visual estimation of postpartum blood loss is. Cross-sectional prospective study was done in department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki among 450 pregnant women who delivered between January 2017 and August 2017. Pre- and postpartum venous blood samples were taken from women who met the inclusion criteria for determination of haematocrit. Postpartum blood loss was estimated visually by the primary clinician conducting the delivery. Actual blood loss was calculated using the difference between the pre and postpartum haematocrit and was compared with visually estimated blood loss. Data collected was analysed using IBM SPSS Statistic version 20 and represented with simple percentages, chi square and odd ratio. P < 0.05 is statistically significant. The mean age of the study population was 29.8 ± 4.7 years. The mean visually estimated and calculated blood loss was 497.2 ± 254 ml and 885.7± 864 ml respectively. Prevalence of PPPH by calculation was 55.9% for vaginal delivery (47.1% by EBL) and 27% for caesarean section (7.6% by EBL). Visual estimation accurately estimated actual blood loss in 30% of women. Accuracy of estimation is not influenced by mode of delivery (OR = 1.18, 95% CI 0.48-2.89).The accuracy of visual estimation of postpartum blood loss is low. Clinicians should adopt more accurate methods of postpartum blood loss estimation in our environment.

Keywords:

Delivery, PPH, visual estimation of blood loss

How to Cite this Article

Obuna JA, Okafor I, Anikwe CC, Ejikeme BN, Eze  JN(2020). Visual estimation of blood loss post delivery: How accurate are we in a poor resource setting.Int. Res. J. Med. Biomed. Sci. 5(3):24-28.

Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License.


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