scholarly journals Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on maternity services and challenges faced by pregnant women delivering at a tertiary care centre in South India

Author(s):  
Parvathi Teja Naik ◽  
Rupesh Bala Murugan ◽  
Haritha Sagili ◽  
Subitha Lakshminarayanan ◽  
Priyadarshini Muruganandhan ◽  
...  

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. India entered a nationwide lockdown on March 25, 2020, disrupting regular health services. Hence this study was conducted to estimate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternity services and to describe the challenges faced by pregnant women. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study conducted from July 2020 to October 2020 at tertiary care hospital, Puducherry, India. 422 pregnant women delivered during this period were included and detailed questionnaire was administered regarding antenatal, intrapartum, postnatal services and, challenges faced during the pandemic via telephonic call. Responses were documented in Epicollect version 5, transferred to Microsoft excel and analysed using Stata version 14.2. Continuous variables were expressed as mean (SD), and Categorical variables as proportions. Results: The 100% response rate was achieved with 32.5% high risk pregnancies. The 71.8% women availed direct emergency medical services while 28.2%. were referrals. The 79.9% and 25% of the women in third trimester had less antenatal visits and discontinued haematinics respectively. The 47.4% had first trimester testing, 30% didn’t receive lactation support. 81% and 69% of primiparous and multiparous women respectively had adopted postpartum Intrauterine contraceptive device as contraception. The 35-50% women faced challenges in availing essential obstetric care services.Conclusions: Development of robust linkage system between existing primary healthcare and tertiary care for managing both low and high-risk pregnancies is of paramount importance to alleviate maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity.  

Author(s):  
Ghamar Bitar ◽  
Anthony Sciscione

Objective Despite lack of evidence to support efficacy, activity restriction is one of the most commonly prescribed interventions used for the prevention of preterm birth. We have a departmental policy against the use of activity restriction but many practitioners still prescribe it in an effort to prevent preterm birth. We sought to evaluate the rate and compliance of women who are prescribed activity restriction during pregnancy to prevent preterm birth. Study Design This was a single-site retrospective questionnaire study at a tertiary care, academic affiliated medical center. Women with a history of preterm delivery or short cervix were included. Once patients were identified, each patient was contacted and administered a questionnaire. We assessed the rates of activity restriction prescription and compliance. Secondary outcomes included details regarding activity restriction and treatment in pregnancy. Continuous variables were compared with t-test and categorical variables with Chi-square test. The value p < 0.05 was considered significant. Results Among the 52 women who responded to the questionnaire, 18 reported being placed on activity restriction by a physician, with 1 self-prescribing activity restriction, giving a rate of our primary outcome of 19 of 52 (36.5%). All women reported compliance with prescribed activity restriction (100%). Gestational age at delivery was not different in women placed on activity restriction. Conclusion This questionnaire suggests that approximately one in three high-risk women were placed on activity restriction during their pregnancy despite a departmental policy against its use. The 100% compliance rate in patients placed on activity restriction is a strong reminder of the impact prescribing patterns of physicians can have on patients. Key Points


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (04) ◽  
pp. 707-710
Author(s):  
Sajjad Ali Kazi ◽  
Aamir Memon ◽  
Abdul Hameed Radhan

Objectives: This study has been conducted in a tertiary care hospital to observe the frequency of congenital birth defects in newborn babies born at, Hyderabad, Sindh. Study Design: Prospective observation study. Setting: The Departments of Obstetrics and Pediatrics, Isra University Hospital, Hyderabad. Period: Two years from 2016 to 2018. Material & Methods: All the pregnant women irrespective of their parity and were included in the study after getting informed and written consent from their family heads and after the approval from Hospital’s ethical committee. We have used SPSS version 21.0 software for both data entering and analysis. All the continuous variables were analyzed using student t test and categorical variables were analyzed using chi-square test. P-value of ≤0.05 was taken as statistically significant. Results: A total of 150 pregnant women were included in our study with their mean age and SD was 26.72 ± 7.07 years and the mean years of marriage were 5.95±6 years. Most of the women were multiparous (47%), as compared to nulliparous and grandmultiparous, 33% and 20%, respectively. The prevalence of congenital birth defect was 11.3%, of these 30% had CNS malformations followed by 30% with gastrointestinal, 24% musculoskeletal, 12% genitourinary and 4% had ear malformations. Conclusion: The interfamily marriages (consanguineous marriages) are more common than outside family in study population. The frequency of birth defects was more than i-e: twice higher in interfamily marriages than outside family marriages.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 296-300
Author(s):  
Ameet Jesrani ◽  
Pari Gul ◽  
Nida Khan ◽  
Seema Nayab ◽  
Fahmida Naheed

Objective: To assess different pathological breast lesions in ultra sound in a subgroup of population. Study design and setting: It was a cross sectional study conducted at Bolan Medical Complex Hospital Quetta, Pakistan from June 2018 to January 2019. Methodology: Total 103 patients with breast swelling, pain and discharge were targeted. Gray scale and Doppler Ultrasound of breast followed by FNAC/biopsy of breast lesion was performed. Data presented as mean ± standard deviation for continuous variables and frequency with percentages for categorical variables. Results: Out of 48 clinically palpable lumps US detected all of 48 lumps and additionally 12 clinically non palpable masses were detected on US examination. Thus, overall sensitivity of ultrasound in detecting breast lumps was 100%. Fibroadenoma of the breast was diagnosed accurately in 80.3% of women. Ultrasound reliably differentiated cystic from solid breast masses (100%). The sensitivity of ultrasound for detecting breast carcinoma was 63.4% with a positive predictive value of 87.5%, a negative predictive value of 99.5% and accuracy of 58.33%. US findings most suggestive of benign lesions were oval or round shape in 88.3%, well defined margin in 84%, absent lobulation in 86.04% and wider than taller ratio in 90.69% of the cases.US findings of most predictive for malignancy were of irregular shape in 81.8%, ill-defined margin in 90.9% and length to height ratio in 63.6% of cases. Conclusion: Ultrasound is simple, cheap, safe and relatively accessible imaging modality for evaluation of breast pathologies. Due to its high sensitivity in diagnosing benign breast lesions particularly cystic lesions and fibroadenoma unnecessary interventions can be avoided


2021 ◽  
pp. 223-225
Author(s):  
Dhara Singh ◽  
Sujata bhargava

Background: Recent guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) indicated administering tranexamic acid (TXA) in order to treat postpartum bleeding (PPH). Therefore, nding low-cost and lowrisk alternative methods to control obstetric bleeding is of great importance. The present study aimed to evaluate the prophylactic effect of TXA on bleeding during and after the LSCS. In addition, it was attempted to explore the impact of TXA as a safe and inexpensive method for decreasing bleeding during and after CS so that to decrease the hazard of blood transfusion or hysterectomy in these patients. Material and Methods: This prospective study conducted on 100 women in Department of Obstetrics &gynecolgy for one year period. They were divided in two groups: Cases: (n=50; women receiving prophylactic Tranexamic Acid) and Control: (n=50; women receiving saline). Estimated the amount of blood loss during surgery. The amount of blood loss during surgery were calculated Estimation of weight of dry towels and mops before autoclaving is noted. Results: Most common age group among Cases and Control was 26-30 years .%. Mean age among cases group (26.69±7.51 years) was signicantly lesser compared to control study cohort (29.75±7.72). Post operativehemoglobin level was signicantly higher among Case (11.26±12.03) as compared to Control (8.56±1.01). Comparing post operative complications revealedno signicant changes. Use of topical hemostatics was higher among the control (77%) as compared to Cases (57%). Conclusion: Prophylactic treatment with TXA in relation to elective LSCS reduces the overall total blood loss, and the risk of reoperations owing to postoperative hemorrhage as revealed by higher hemoglobin level among cases.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 15
Author(s):  
Sheenam Gazala ◽  
Mohmad Saleem Chesti ◽  
Syed Mushfiq

Background: Current study aimed at s to delineate the etiology and clinical parameters associated with AUFI presenting to emergency department in a tertiary care hospital.Methods: This was a prospective hospital based study carried out at emergency medicine, SKIMS hospital, Soura Kashmir, India July 2017 to august 2018. Patients with acute undifferentiated fever were enrolled. Descriptive statistics were calculated in terms of mean±SD for continuous variables like age of the patients and duration of fever, Frequency and percentage were used to analyse categorical variables such as causes of fever and gender, while as descriptive analysis was calculated in terms of mean±SD for continuous variables like age of the patients and duration of fever.Results: Total numbers of patients included were 174, among these 112 (64.3%) were males and 62 (35.6%) were females. Most patients were diagnosed enteric fever (N=59, 33.9%) followed by UTI (N=25, 14.3%) dengue (N=12, 6.8%) and malaria (N=8, 4.5%) while rest of cases were associated with other viral illnesses (N=70, 40.5%) based on clinical basis and inconclusive laboratory results.Conclusions: Enteric fever was found to be the most common cause of acute undifferentiated fever followed by dengue and other viral illnesses, although causes and clinic spectrum of AUFI is varied.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (Supp-1) ◽  
pp. 85-91
Author(s):  
Shazia Syed ◽  
Humera Noreen ◽  
Humaira Masood ◽  
Ismat Batool ◽  
Hina Gul ◽  
...  

Background: The current COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost 17.3 million victims worldwide with mortality of almost 674K. Pregnancy is one of the most susceptible conditions for COVID-19 infection, but limited data is currently available about the clinical characteristics of pregnant women with the disease. Objective; to describe the clinical characteristics, co-morbidities, management, feto-maternal, and neonatal outcome in COVID-19 positive pregnant women. Methodology: A descriptive case series study was conducted in Obs/Gynae dept of Benazir Bhutto Tertiary Care Hospital, Rawalpindi, including all asymptomatic/symptomatic COVID-19 positive pregnant women and clinical suspects (COVID-19 PCR negative women) delivered in our hospital from 01st April 2020 to 31st July 2020. Their medical records were reviewed for clinical characteristics, management, feto-maternal and neonatal outcomes. Continuous variables were expressed in Mean & Range and Categorical variables as number & Percentage. Results: During the study period a total of 17 cases were reviewed. The mean maternal age was 28.94 yrs. Primigravida (07), Multipara (10). Mean gestational age was 37 wks (range; 30-41wks). Presenting symptomatology was varied. Asymptomatic; (29%), COVID-19 specific symptoms; fever & flu (12%), fever&cough (6%), shortness of breath(SOB) alone (6%), fever & SOB(6%) and pregnancy-related manifestations were labour pains (17%), eclampsia(6%), hydrocephalous fetus (6%) and hepatic encephalopathy(6%). The commonest co-morbidity was Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (24%). Five women (29%) required ICU care. Lower segment caesarean sections(LSCS) (59%), vaginal delivery (41%). Eleven babies delivered with good Apgar score and birth weight. Two were early neonatal deaths (ENND) and 04 were received intra-uterine fetal deaths (IUDs). Fetal demise was associated with strong obstetric risk factors. Out of 13 live-born babies, RT-PCR Covid-19 testing was done in 10 (77%) cases and was negative. One mother was expired due to complications of hepatic encephalopathy, sepsis, and burst abdomen. Conclusion; The clinical course of COVID-19 disease in pregnancy seems to be no different from non-pregnant women. Clinical manifestations are diverse and infection contracted in the third trimester of pregnancy is associated with good feto-maternal and neonatal outcomes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noman Ali ◽  
Nadeem Ullah Khan ◽  
Shahid Waheed ◽  
Syed Mustahsan

Objective: Our study aimed at identifying the characteristics and etiology of various causes of acute undifferentiated fever in patients presenting to the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted at the department of emergency medicine, Aga Khan University Hospital from January to June 2016. Adult patients presenting to Emergency department with acute undifferentiated fever were enrolled. Descriptive statistics were calculated in terms of mean±SD for continuous variables like age of the patients and duration of fever, whereas frequency and percentage were computed for categorical variables like gender and causes of fever. Results: A total of one hundred and fifty five patients were included. Out of these 97 (62.6%) were males and 58 (37.4%) were females. Most patients (25.2%, n= 39) were diagnosed as malaria followed closely by dengue fever (n=33, 21.3%) and then enteric fever (n= 10, 6.5%). while 41.9% (n=65) were diagnosed as suspected viral fever based on clinical judgment and inconclusive laboratory results. Conclusion: Malaria was found to be the most common confirmed cause of acute undifferentiated fever followed by dengue and enteric fever. The provision of accurate epidemiological data will enable resources to be directed towards key areas and will be of practical importance to clinicians. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.6.2334 How to cite this:Ali N, Khan NU, Waheed S, Mustahsan S. Etiology of acute undifferentiated fever in patients presenting to the emergency department of a tertiary care center in Karachi, Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(6):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.6.2334 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


Author(s):  
Audrey M. Uong ◽  
Michael D. Cabana ◽  
Janet R. Serwint ◽  
Carol A. Bernstein ◽  
Elaine E. Schulte

OBJECTIVES To examine the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and associated workflow changes, such as deployment on pediatric faculty burnout in an early epicenter of the pandemic. We hypothesized burnout would increase during the COVID-19 surge. METHODS We conducted serial cross-sectional surveys of pediatric faculty at an academic, tertiary-care children’s hospital that experienced a COVID-19 surge in the Northeastern United States. Surveys were administered pre-surge (February 2020), during the surge (April 2020), and postsurge (September 2020). The primary outcome was burnout prevalence. We also measured areas of worklife scores. We compared responses between all 3 survey periods. Continuous variables were analyzed by using Student’s t or Mann–Whitney tests, and categorical variables were analyzed by using χ2 or Fisher’s exact test, as appropriate. RESULTS Our response rate was 89 of 223 (40%) presurge, 100 of 267 (37%) during the surge, and 113 of 275 (41%) postsurge. There were no differences in demographics, including sex, race, and academic rank between survey periods. Frequency of burnout was similar in all 3 periods (20% to 26%). The mean scores of emotional exhaustion improved during the surge (2.25 to 1.9; P = .04). CONCLUSIONS Contrary to our hypothesis, we found no changes in pediatric faculty burnout after a COVID-19 surge. Emotional exhaustion improved during the COVID-19 surge. However, these findings represent short-term responses to the COVID-19 surge. Longer-term monitoring of the impact of the COVID-19 surge on pediatric faculty burnout may be necessary for health care organizations to mitigate burnout.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samiullah Shaikh ◽  
Faiza Deedar ◽  
Tara Chand Devrajani

Abstract Background: The outbreak caused by novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019 when a new pathogen was discovered from the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of the patient suffering from pneumonia. Globally over 81.47 million confirmed cases and 1.79 million deaths has been reported. The clinical spectrum ranges from mild influenza-like illness to severe life threatening respiratory disease requiring ventilatory support to death. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the baseline carecteristic of the patients and impact of various risk factors on the outcome of patients admitted in tertiary care hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODSStudy Area and Period: This study was conducted at Liaquat University Hospital from April 2020 to September 2020. Study Design: Cross-Sectional Descriptive.Inclusion Criteria: The patients were included on the basis of diagnosis of COVID-19 confirmed on reverse transcription Polymerase Chain reaction (RT-PCR) test. Categorical variables such as age, sex, Gram-Covid risk category ,diabetes mellitus, hypertension, renal, pulmonary disease, obesity, outcome of patient were presented as frequency and percentage RESULTS: This study included 235 consecutive patients admitted at Liaquat University Hospital from April 2020 to September 2020. There were 187(79.6%) male and 48(20.4 %) female. The age < 65 years were present in 80 ( 34%) and ≥ 65 155(66%) patients. The most prevalent symptoms were fever ,breathlessness, cough, anorexia, fatigue in all 235(100% ) patients. Severity of illness according to Gram-Covid Score 18 (7.7%) patients were in low-risk group, 93(39.6%) in moderate risk group and 124 (52.8%) in High risk group.There were no risk factors in 121(51.5%) , one risk factor in 49(20.9%), two risk factors in32(13.6%) , three risk factors in 18( 7.7%) and four risk factors in 15(6.4%) patients.The outcome of patients showed 57(24.3%) deaths, 107 (45.5%) patients had prolong stay and 71(30.2%) patients recovered. A strong relationship was observed between the outcome of patient with age, number of risk factors, severity of illness according to gram - Covid score whereas insignificant relationship with the sex of patients.Conclusion: COVID-19 patients clinically present with fever, cough and breathlessness. Majority of patients present with moderate to high severity. Patient with advanced age, high risk on gram-Covid score with multiple comorbidities are particularly susceptible to adverse outcome.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-33
Author(s):  
Bidhan Shrestha ◽  
Rakshya Shrestha ◽  
Arun Sedhain ◽  
Sabita Shrestha ◽  
Bishnu Mani Dhital ◽  
...  

Background: Dengue fever is one of the most common tropical diseases caused by an arbo­virus. This virus is a member of genus Flavivirus and flaviviradae family, is transmitted by bite of Aedes aegypti mosquito. Its outbreak is being reported from different parts of the world including Nepal. This disease is prevalent throughout Nepal mostly in terai regions. The aim was to study the epidemiological and clinical spectrum of dengue fever at tertiary care hos­pital in Chitwan. Methods: This study was a hospital based prospective study where a total of 241 patients di­agnosed with dengue fever were assessed. This study was carried out from September 2019 to February 2020. Data was entered on predesigned proforma and analyzed by using SPSS version 16.0. Mean and standard deviations was calculated for continuous variables and frequencies for categorical variables. Results: More than half (56%) of the dengue patients belonged to the age group of 25-44 years. Out of 241 patients, 61.4% were males. Apart from fever the other common symptoms were ret­roorbital pain/headache comprising around 80% of patients. The mean duration of hospital stay in our study was 3.86 days. Approximately 72% (173) patients had leucopenia and 8.7% (21) had severe thrombocytopenia(<50000/cumm). NS1Ag positive were in 84% of total patients. Conclusions: Dengue fever is one of the dreadful diseases in tropical and hilly areas of Nepal. With the help of public health authorities, educating public about vector control and immediate medical attention may help in curbing this deadly disease.


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