Acute obstetric and gynecologic emergencies among pregnant women in a tertiary care hospital, Iran

Background: Acute abdominal pain is a medium or severe abdominal pain that can lead to a life threatening for pregnant women and frequently requires urgent investigation and management. The aim of this study was to assess the causes and the presentation of acute abdomen among pregnant women admitted at the gynecology and an obstetrics ward of the hospital. Methods: The present study was a cross sectional hospital based study among 118 pregnant women by face to face interview using a semi structured questionnaire. This study was conducted at the gynecology and an obstetrics ward of the hospital, Babol Iran, from April 2004 to February 2009. All analysis was performed with SPSS software. Results: Mean age of women was 29.1±6 years. The frequencies of the most common diagnosis of the patients were ectopic pregnancy (73.7%), appendicitis (10.2%), respectively. The study found that 55.1% of respondents complained their pain lasting more than 24 hours. Besides, 81.4% of respondents felt pain in the supra pubic followed by with nausea/ vomiting. A total of 103 (83.9%) underwent with Salpingostomy and 12 (10.1%) were treated with appendectomy. Conclusion: The study concludes that a large prospective study is needed in order to precise diagnosis of the acute abdomen in pregnant women by continual updating of availability of the gynecologists for the management of the acute gynecologic and obstetrics emergencies among pregnant women.