OBJECTIVES: To determine maternal mortality rate during the last decade as revealing the quality of obstetrical follow-up and the necessary measures to be taken. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective study conducted in the department of gynaecology in the military hospital in Tunis between 1990 and 2001, permitted to count 10 cases of maternal death. RESULTS: Maternal mortality rate was about 33.72/100,000 live births. Mean age of patients was 31.2 years. Primiparity, multiparity, poor socio-economic conditions, high-risk pregnancies and bad follow-up were responsible in 5, 1, 6 and 3 cases and represent the risk factors of mortality. All deaths occurred after delivery, with 60% before 24 h. Causes of death were haemorrhage in 40%, gravidic hypertension in 20%, anesthetic accidents in 10%, acute hepatic failure in 10%, and infection in 10%. Indirect causes are responsible for 20% of cases. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Deaths were judged evitable in 66.6% of cases, which confirms, although maternal mortality has diminished in the recent past, the necessity of pursuing study of risk factors together with study of remedies to them.
OBJECTIVES: To determine maternal mortality rate during the last decade as revealing the quality of obstetrical follow-up and the necessary measures to be taken. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A retrospective study conducted in the department of gynaecology in the military hospital in Tunis between 1990 and 2001, permitted to count 10 cases of maternal death. RESULTS: Maternal mortality rate was about 33.72/100,000 live births. Mean age of patients was 31.2 years. Primiparity, multiparity, poor socio-economic conditions, high-risk pregnancies and bad follow-up were responsible in 5, 1, 6 and 3 cases and represent the risk factors of mortality. All deaths occurred after delivery, with 60% before 24 h. Causes of death were haemorrhage in 40%, gravidic hypertension in 20%, anesthetic accidents in 10%, acute hepatic failure in 10%, and infection in 10%. Indirect causes are responsible for 20% of cases. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION:Deaths were judged evitable in 66.6% of cases, which confirms, although maternal mortality has diminished in the recent past, the necessity of pursuing study of risk factors together with study of remedies to them.