Characterization of obstetric patients in the emergency of the Regional Teaching Hospital Ambato

Abstract

Introduction: The management of the obstetric patient is a matter of great importance, since it is necessary to guarantee the termination of the pregnancy with satisfactory results for the mother and the child, thus avoiding possible maternal or infant deaths. The general objective of our study was to describe obstetric morbidity and mortality in the emergency department of the Ambato Regional Teaching Hospital during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: Hospital emergency care records were studied in the period January-September 2020, through an observational, retrospective, descriptive study. In this work, emphasis is placed on the obstetric patient in the period during pregnancy and around childbirth, including the immediate puerperium. Results and Conclusion: it was evidenced that in the emergency service of the Ambato Regional Teaching Hospital of a total of 1082 patients treated in the emergency room, 92 of these corresponded to obstetric patients. The highest morbidity corresponded to eutocic deliveries with 39 patients. In the emergency department, 126 Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests were performed, 92 of them on all the obstetric patients seen in the emergency department, resulting in the virus being identified in 46 patients. The most affected age group in COVID patients was 18 to 33 years old, with overall age of 27 years. COVID morbidity predominated in obstetric patients, in the third trimester of pregnancy, 11 of them with fetal distress.