Preterm external cephalic version in an outpatient environment.
OBJECTIVE
Our purpose was to study the safety and efficacy of external cephalic version before term (37 weeks' gestation).


METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed 114 pregnancies in 110 women at 30 to 41 weeks' gestation who had a total of 133 attempts at external cephalic version.


RESULTS
Seventy-nine percent of the versions performed before the thirty-seventh week and 53% performed during or after the thirty-seventh week were successful. After adjustment parity and body mass index, a version performed before the thirty-seventh week was 27 times more likely to be successful than if performed during or after the thirty-seventh week. Ninety-nine percent of the successful versions were delivered with a vertex presentation, and of these only 16% required cesarean delivery.


CONCLUSIONS
External cephalic version is safe and successful if performed before 37 weeks' gestation, hence substantially reducing the rate of cesarean section among nonvertex presentations and reducing the risks associated with breech delivery.
Kornman
M T
MT
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA.
Kimball
K T
KT
Reeves
K O
KO
D001946:Breech Presentation; D002585:Cesarean Section; D005260:Female; D005865:Gestational Age; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014710:Version, Fetal / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data