Publication:

Incidence of decision to delivery interval delay in emergency LSCS and its impact on fetal and maternal outcome: a prospective observational study

Background Caesarean delivery is a complex multidisciplinary procedure. Decision to delivery interval is supposed to play a significant role in maternal and neonatal outcomes. The present study was undertaken to determine the incidence of DDI delay among pregnant women undergoing Emergency LSCS in tertiary care centres.

Methods This study was conducted on 400 subjects who underwent emergency LSCS in category I and category II during a period from November 2020 to August 2021.

Results The maximum patients were from the age group of 25-29 years (43%), primigravida (59.1%), gestational age between 37-40 weeks (78%). 29% have undergone category-1 LCSC and 71.2% have undergone category-2 LSCS. Out of 116 patients underwent category-1 LSCS, 11 (9.5%) patient delay was present whereas in category-2 LSCS out of 284,12 (4.2%) patient delay was present. Among Category-I LSCS the most common indication was Fetal distress and among Category-II LSCS the major indication was non reassuring CTG. Maximum babies have APGAR scores between 7-10 at 1 (N=369) and 5 min (N=398). The mean cord PH was 7.31, ranged from 6.9-7.47. 98 babies required NICU admission and most of them admitted for respiratory distress. 11 patients required blood transfusion. There was no significant association found between various parameters and DDI delay, (p>0.05).

Conclusions In the present study, the interval between the decision to delivery interval has no significant impact on feto-maternal outcome in Category-I LSCS. Among Category-II LSCS there was a delay in 12 cases, among them 7 babies required NICU admission, the complications among neonates were significantly more when DDI was >75 minutes.