Maternal Morbidity in an Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Introduction: Critically ill obstetric patients represent a challenge for the health team.
Objective: To identify serious maternal morbidity in an intensive care ward through clinical and epidemiological parameters, in order to create preventive strategies to assist.
Methods: A retrospective longitudinal observational study of the 794 obstetric patients treated in the intensive care unit at Carlos M de Céspedes Hospital, Bayamo was carried out, from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2020. Clinical and epidemiological variables were analyzed and processed through descriptive statistics and represented in numbers and percentages.
Results: Patients with severe maternal morbidity constituted 50.2% of the total admissions, 70.2% were between 20 and 35 years old, 73.3% had a stay of up to 6 days. Pregnant women (58.9%) and preterm pregnancy (56.8%) predominated. Preeclampsia-eclampsia and hemorrhage were the main obstetric reasons for admission (13.7 and 12.9%), respectively, and non-obstetric surgical conditions
accounted for 15.3%. The primary causes of complication were infection (29%), hypertensive disease (13.9%), and decompensation of the underlying disease (12.4%).
Conclusions: The number of obstetric patients admitted to the intensive care unit was very high. The main reasons for admission were surgical conditions, pre-eclampsia and hemorrhage. More than a quarter of the patients were classified as extremely severe maternal morbidity.