Risk factors for obstetric fistula: a clinical review

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Abstract

Obstetric fistula is the presence of a hole between a woman’s genital tract and either the urinary or the intestinal tract. Better knowledge of the risk factors for obstetric fistula could help in preventing its occurrence. The purpose of this study was to assess the characteristics of obstetric fistula patients. We conducted a search of the literature to identify all relevant articles published during the period from 1987–2008. Among the 19 selected studies, 15 were reports from sub-Saharan Africa and 4 from the Middle East. Among the reported fistula cases, 79.4% to 100% were obstetrical while the remaining cases were from other causes. Rectovaginal fistulae accounted for 1% to 8%, vesicovaginal fistulae for 79% to 100% of cases, and combined vesicovaginal and rectovaginal fistulae were reported in 1% to 23% of cases. Teenagers accounted for 8.9% to 86% of the obstetrical fistulae patients at the time of treatment. Thirty-one to 67% of these women were primiparas. Among the obstetric fistula patients, 57.6% to 94.8% of women labor at home and are secondarily transferred to health facilities. Nine to 84% percent of these women delivered at home. Many of the fistula patients were shorter than 150 cm tall (40–79.4%). The mean duration of labor among the fistula patients ranged from 2.5 to 4 days. Twenty to 95.7% of patients labored for more than 24 h. Operative delivery was eventually performed in 11% to 60% of cases. Obstetric fistula was associated with several risk factors, and they appear to be preventable. This knowledge should be used in strengthening the preventive strategy both at the health facility and at the community level.

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World Health Organization partograph in management of labour. World Health Organization Maternal Health and Safe Motherhood Programme.

(1994)

As part of the Safe Motherhood Initiative, launched in 1987, the World Health Organization have produced and promoted a partograph with a view to improving labour management and reducing maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. This partograph has been tested in a multicentre trial in south east Asia involving 35,484 women. Introduction of the partograph with an agreed labour-management protocol reduced both prolonged labour (from 6.4% to 3.4% of labours) and the proportion of labours requiring augmentation (from 20.7% to 9.1%). Emergency caesarean sections fell from 9.9% to 8.3%, and intrapartum stillbirths from 0.5% to 0.3%. Among singleton pregnancies with no complicating factors, the improved outcome was even more marked, with caesarean sections falling from 6.2% to 4.5%. The improvements took place among both nulliparous and multiparous women. The World Health Organisation partograph clearly differentiates normal from abnormal progress in labour and identifies those women likely to require intervention. Its use in all labour wards is recommended.

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The obstetric vesicovaginal fistula: characteristics of 899 patients from Jos, Nigeria.

L. Wall, Jonathan A Karshima, Carolyn V. Kirschner … (2004)

The purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics of women with obstetric vesicovaginal fistulas at a hospital in north central Nigeria. A retrospective record review was conducted of all women who were seen with vesicovaginal fistulas at Evangel Hospital in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria, between January 1992 and June 1999. A total of 932 fistula cases were identified, of which 899 cases (96.5%) were associated temporally with labor and delivery. The "typical patient" was small and short (44 kg and <150 cm); had been married early (15.5 years) but was now divorced or separated; was uneducated, poor, and from a rural area; had developed her fistula as a primigravida during a labor that lasted at least 2 days and which resulted in a stillborn fetus. Obstetric vesicovaginal fistula is extremely common in north central Nigeria. A complex interaction that involves multiple biologic and socioeconomic factors appears to predispose young women to this devastating childbirth injury.