title: High incidence of obstetric complications in Kassala Hospital, Eastern Sudan.
abstract: Medical files of women delivered at Kassala Hospital, Eastern Sudan in the period of January-December 2009 were reviewed retrospectively. Out of 4,689 delivered women, 14.7% were teenagers, 67.1% had no antenatal care and 12.6% were grandmultiparous. Obstetric complications included: pre-term birth (2.6%); pre-eclampsia/eclampsia (4.2%); haemorrhage (2.9%); malpresentation (5.5%); obstructed labour (1.9%) and ruptured uterus (0.6%). Caesarean delivery rate was 31.1%. While 89.4% of the newborn babies were taken home, 6% were admitted to the nursery, 4.4% were stillbirths, and 0.2% immediate neonatal deaths. There were 26 maternal deaths (550 per 100,000 live births), mainly due to septicaemia (38.4%), haemorrhage (19.2%), embolism (15.3%) and malaria (11.5%). Thus, there is a high frequency of maternal morbidities and mortality which needs improvement in obstetric care. It is important to make visits from a tertiary hospital to the region to collect statistics and discuss management of the problems they reveal, with the local staff.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Kassala University, Sudan.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Okud
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khojali
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Adam
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007232:Infant, Newborn, Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D008428:Maternal Mortality; D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D013397:Sudan / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult