[Maternal mortality in a reference center in the Brazilian Southeast].
OBJECTIVE
To describe the prevalence of maternal mortality at a tertiary care hospital and to assess its preventability.


METHODS
This study, through the analysis of maternal deaths that occurred during the period from 1999 to 2010 at a reference in Campinas--Brazil, CAISM/ UNICAMP, discusses some of the factors associated with the main causes of death and some structural problems of structure of the health services. It is a retrospective descriptive study with evaluation of sociodemographic variables and the medical and obstetric history of women, and the causes of death.


RESULTS
The majority of maternal deaths occurred due to direct obstetric (45%) and avoidable (36%) causes, in women with preterm gestation, who delivered by cesarean section (56%) and received various management procedures, including blood transfusion, ICU admission and need for laparotomy and/or hysterectomy. The hospital transfer was associated with the predominance of direct obstetric (19 versus 6, p=0.02) and avoidable causes (22 versus 9, p=0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that, despite current advances in Obstetrics, infections and hypertensive disorders are still the predominant causes of maternal mortality. We observed an increase of clinical-surgical conditions and neoplasms as causes of death among women during pregnancy.
Júlia Kefalás
JK
Troncon
Dácio Leonel
DL
de Quadros Netto
Patrícia Moretti
PM
Rehder
José Guilherme
JG
Cecatti
Fernanda Garanhani
FG
Surita
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008428:Maternal Mortality / Q000639:trends*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers; D055815:Young Adult