Emergency Obstetric Hysterectomies for Postpartum Haemorrhage

Objective: To review emergency obstetric hysterectomy in our unit, including the indications for and morbidity associated with the procedure Design: A retrospective cases analysis. Subjects and methods: Records of obstetric patients who had undergone emergency hysterectomies in between 15 October 1993 and 31 December 1997 were reviewed retrospectively. Results: There were 15,474 deliveries and 7 emergency obstetric hysterectomies. All cases had total abdominal hysterectomy. The indications for hysterectomy were uterine atony and placental disorders. There were one case of urinary bladder injury and 2 cases of disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. There was no maternal mortality. Conclusion: Emergency obstetric hysterectomy remains a potentially life‐saving procedure in unavoidable catastrophe. The 7 patients with life threatening postpartum haemorrhage underwent hysterectomy after failure of conservative measures. The morbidity is low and there was no mortality in this series.