Postpartum infections
Postpartum infections | |
---|---|
Other names | Puerperal fever, childbed fever, maternal sepsis, maternal infection, puerperal infections |
Antibiotics[1] | |
Frequency | 11.8 million[3] |
Deaths | 17,900[4] |
Postpartum infections, also known as childbed fever and puerperal fever, are any bacterial
The most common infection is that of the
Due to the risks following caesarean section, it is recommended that all women receive a preventive dose of
In 2015, about 11.8 million maternal infections occurred.
Signs and symptoms
Signs and symptoms usually include a fever greater than 38.0 °C (100.4 °F), chills, low abdominal pain, and possibly bad-smelling vaginal discharge.[1] It usually occurs after the first 24 hours and within the first ten days following delivery.[5]
Causes
After childbirth, a woman's
Risk factors
Causes (listed in order of decreasing frequency) include
- PPD 0: cigarette smoking, and obstructive lung disease.
- PPD 1–2: urinary tract infections risk factors include multiple vaginal examinations during labor, and untreated bacteriuria.
- PPD 2–3: endometritis ( the most common cause ) risk factors include emergency cesarean section, prolonged membrane rupture, prolonged labor, and multiple vaginal examinations during labor.
- PPD 4–5: wound infection risk factors include emergency membrane rupture, prolonged labor, and multiple vaginal examinations during labor.
- PPD 5–6: septic pelvic thrombophlebitis risk factors include emergency cesarean section, prolonged membrane rupture, prolonged labor, and diffuse difficult vaginal childbirth.
- PPD 7–21: mastitis risk factors include nipple trauma from breastfeeding.
Diagnosis
Puerperal fever is diagnosed with:
- A temperature rise above 38 °C (100.4 °F) maintained over 24 hours or recurring during the period from the end of the first to the end of the 10th day after childbirth or abortion. (ICD-10)
- Oral temperature of 38 °C (100.4 °F) or more on any two of the first ten days postpartum. (USJCMW)[12]
Puerperal fever (from the Latin puer, male child (boy)), is no longer favored as a diagnostic category. Instead, contemporary terminology specifies:[13]
- the specific target of infection: endometritis (inflammation of the inner lining of the uterus), metrophlebitis (inflammation of the veins of the uterus), and peritonitis (inflammation of the membrane lining of the abdomen).
- the severity of the infection: less serious infection (contained multiplication of microbes) or possibly life-threatening sepsis (uncontrolled and uncontained multiplication of microbes throughout the blood stream).
Endometritis is a polymicrobial infection. It frequently includes organisms such as Ureaplasma, Streptococcus, Mycoplasma, and Bacteroides, and may also include organisms such as Gardnerella, Chlamydia, Lactobacillus, Escherichia, and Staphylococcus.[14]
Differential diagnosis
A number of other conditions can cause fevers following delivery including:
Management
Antibiotics have been used to prevent and treat these infections—however, the misuse of antibiotics is a serious problem for global health.[2] It is recommended that guidelines be followed that outline when it is appropriate to give antibiotics and which antibiotics are most effective.[2]
Atelectasis: mild to moderate fever, no changes or mild rales on chest auscultation.[15]
Management: pulmonary exercises, ambulation (deep breathing and walking).
Urinary tract infection: high fever, malaise, costovertebral tenderness, positive urine culture.[16]
Management: antibiotics as per culture sensitivity (cephalosporine).
Endometritis: moderate fever, exquisite uterine tenderness, minimal abdominal findings.[17]
Management: multiple agent IV antibiotics to cover polymicrobial organisms: clindamycin, gentamicin, addition of ampicillin if no response, no cultures are necessary.
Management: antibiotics for cellulitis, open and drain wound, saline-soaked packing twice a day, secondary closure.
Septic pelvic thrombophlebitis: persistent wide fever swings despite antibiotics, usually normal abdominal or pelvic exams.[19]
Management: IV heparin for 7–10 days at rates sufficient to prolong the PTT to double the baseline values.
Mastitis: unilateral, localized erythema, edema, tenderness.[20]
Management: antibiotics for cellulitis, open and drain abscess if present.
Epidemiology
The number of cases of puerperal sepsis per year shows wide variations among published literature—this may be related to different definitions, recordings etc.[12] Globally, bacterial infections are the cause of 10% of maternal deaths—this is more common in low income countries but is also a direct cause of maternal deaths in high-income countries.[2][21]
In the United States, puerperal infections are believed to occur in between 1% and 8% of all births. About three die from puerperal sepsis for every 100,000 births. The single most important risk factor is caesarean section.[22] The number of maternal deaths in the United States is about 13 in 100,000. They make up about 11% of pregnancy-related deaths in the United States.[1]
In the United Kingdom from 1985 to 2005, the number of direct deaths associated with genital tract sepsis per 100,000 pregnancies was 0.40–0.85.[23] In 2003–2005, genital tract sepsis accounted for 14% of direct causes of maternal death.[24]
Puerperal infections in the 18th and 19th centuries affected, on average, 6 to 9 women in every 1,000 births, killing two to three of them with peritonitis or sepsis. It was the single most common cause of maternal mortality, accounting for about half of all deaths related to childbirth, and was second only to tuberculosis in killing women of childbearing age. A rough estimate is that about 250,000–500,000 died from puerperal fever in the 18th and 19th centuries in England and Wales alone.[25]
History
Although it had been recognized from as early as the time of the
The death rate for women giving birth decreased in the 20th century in
"The Doctor's Plague"
From the 1600s through the mid-to-late 1800s, the majority of childbed fever cases were caused by the doctors themselves. With no knowledge of germs, doctors did not believe hand washing was needed.[citation needed]
Hospitals for childbirth became common in the 17th century in many European cities. These "lying-in" hospitals were established at a time when there was no knowledge of
The first recorded epidemic of puerperal fever occurred at the
In the 1800s
Semmelweis was not the only doctor ignored after sounding a warning about this issue: in Treatise on the Epidemic of Puerperal Fever (1795), ex-naval surgeon and Aberdonian obstetrician Alexander Gordon (1752–1799) warned that the disease was transmitted from one case to another by midwives and doctors. Gordon wrote, "It is a disagreeable declaration for me to mention, that I myself was the means of carrying the infection to a great number of women."[32][33]
Hygienic measures
In 1843, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. published The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever and controversially concluded that puerperal fever was frequently carried from patient to patient by physicians and nurses; he suggested that clean clothing and avoidance of autopsies by those aiding birth would prevent the spread of puerperal fever.[36][37] Holmes quoted Dr. James Blundell as stating, "... in my own family, I had rather that those I esteemed the most should be delivered unaided, in a stable, by the mangerside, than that they should receive the best help, in the fairest apartment, but exposed to the vapors of this pitiless disease."[38]
Holmes' conclusions were ridiculed by many contemporaries, including Charles Delucena Meigs, a well-known obstetrician, who stated, "Doctors are gentlemen, and gentlemen's hands are clean."[39] Richard Gordon states that Holmes' exhortations "outraged obstetricians, particularly in Philadelphia".[40] In those days, "surgeons operated in blood-stiffened frock coats—the stiffer the coat, the prouder the busy surgeon", "pus was as inseparable from surgery as blood", and "Cleanliness was next to prudishness". He quotes Sir Frederick Treves on that era: "There was no object in being clean. Indeed, cleanliness was out of place. It was considered to be finicking and affected. An executioner might as well manicure his nails before chopping off a head".[41][42]
In 1844, Ignaz Semmelweis was appointed assistant lecturer in the First Obstetric Division of the Vienna General Hospital (Allgemeines Krankenhaus), where medical students received their training. Working without knowledge of Holmes' essay, Semmelweis noticed his ward's 16% mortality rate from fever was substantially higher than the 2% mortality rate in the Second Division, where midwifery students were trained. Semmelweis also noticed that puerperal fever was rare in women who gave birth before arriving at the hospital. Semmelweis noted that doctors in First Division performed autopsies each morning on women who had died the previous day, but the midwives were not required or allowed to perform such autopsies. He made the connection between autopsies and puerperal fever after a colleague, Jakob Kolletschka, died of sepsis after accidentally cutting his hand while performing an autopsy.[citation needed]
Semmelweis began experimenting with various cleansing agents and, from May 1847, ordered all doctors and students working in the First Division wash their hands in chlorinated lime solution before starting ward work, and later before each vaginal examination. The mortality rate from puerperal fever in the division fell from 18% in May 1847 to less than 3% in June–November of the same year.[43] While his results were extraordinary, he was treated with skepticism and ridicule (see Response to Semmelweis).
He did the same work in St. Rochus hospital in Pest, Hungary, and published his findings in 1860, but his discovery was again ignored.[44]
In 1935,
Notable cases
Elite status was no protection against postpartum infections, as the deaths of several English queens attest. Elizabeth of York, queen consort of Henry VII, died of puerperal fever one week after giving birth to a daughter, who also died. Her son Henry VIII had two wives who died this way, Jane Seymour and Catherine Parr.[citation needed]
Suzanne Barnard, mother of philosopher
In Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol, it is implied that both Scrooge's mother and younger sister perished from this condition, explaining the character's animosity towards his nephew Fred and also his poor relationship with his own father[citation needed].
See also
- Postpartum confinement, a traditional practice after childbirth
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-07-179893-8.
- ^ (PDF) from the original on 2016-02-07.
- ^ PMID 27733282.
- ^ PMID 27733281.
- ^ ISBN 978-93-5152-067-2. Archivedfrom the original on 2015-12-08.
- ISBN 978-1-4557-7558-3.
- PMID 25530442.
- ISBN 978-81-8061-472-9. Archivedfrom the original on 2016-03-04.
- ISBN 978-0-8247-8673-1.
- S2CID 24685091.
- PMID 24592068.
- ^ a b The Global Incidence of Puerperal Sepsis Protocol for a Systematic Review Archived 2008-12-17 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Carter (2005):98
- from the original on 2013-11-03.
- ^ "Atelectasis". The Lecturio Medical Concept Library. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
- ^ "Urinary Tract Infection". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 17 April 2015. Archived from the original on 22 February 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
- ISBN 978-1-4557-0895-6.
- ^ Definition of "infection" from several medical dictionaries – Retrieved on 2021-07-07
- ^ Callaghan T. Blueprint Obstetrics and Gynecology.
- S2CID 13006527.
- ^ "WHO recommendations for prevention and treatment of maternal peripartum infections" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-03-06.
- ISBN 978-1-4128-0467-7.
- ]
- ^ CEMACH: Saving Mothers' Lives 2003–2005 Archived 2008-05-21 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 978-0-19-820499-2. Archived from the original(PDF) on 11 February 2012.
- ^ The debate about when this term first emerged is presented by Irvine Loudon, The tragedy of childbed fever, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 8.
- PMID 29081840.
- ^ Loudon I. "Deaths in childbed from the eighteenth century to 1935". Med History 1986; 30: 1–41
- ^ Caplan CE (1995). "The Childbed Fever Mystery and the Meaning of Medical Journalism". McGill Journal of Medicine. 1 (1). Archived from the original on 2012-07-07.
- S2CID 25830725.
- from the original on 2006-12-03.
- ^ Gordon A (1795). A Treatise on the Epidemic Puerperal Fever of Aberdeen. London, England: G.G. and J. Robinson. pp. 63–64. On p. 63, Gordon recognized the puerperal fever as infectious: "But this disease seized such women only, as were visited, or delivered, by a practitioner, or taken care of by a nurse, who had previously attended patients affected with the disease. In short, I had evident proofs of its infectious nature, and that the infection was as readily communicated as that of smallpox, or measles, and operated more speedily than any other infection, with which I am acquainted." From p. 64: "It is a disagreeable declaration for me to mention, that I myself was the means of carrying the infection to a great number of women."
- ^ "Treatise on the Epidemic of Puerperal Fever". www.general-anaesthesia.com. Archived from the original on July 20, 2008. Retrieved September 15, 2011.
- ^ Watson (February 18, 1842). "Lectures on the principles and practice of physic: Diseases of the abdomen". The London Medical Gazette. 29: 801–808. From p. 806: "Whenever puerperal fever is rife, or when a practitioner has attended any one example of it, he should use most diligent ablution; he should even wash his hands with some disinfecting fluid, a weak solution of chlorine for instance: he should avoid going in the same dress to any other of his midwifery patients: in short, he should take all those precautions which, when the danger is understood, common sense will suggest, against his clothes or his body becoming a vehicle of contagion and death between one patient and another."
- ^ The Medical Journal of Australia."The contagiousness of childbed fever: a short history of puerperal sepsis and its treatment" Archived 2006-12-03 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Holmes OW (1842–1843). "On the contagiousness of puerperal fever". The New England Quarterly Journal of Medicine. 1: 503–530.
- ^ Oliver Wendell Holmes: The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever Archived 2007-02-03 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ (Holmes, 1842–1843), p. 510.
- ^ Meigs CD (1854). On the Nature, Signs, and Treatment of Childbed Fevers: In a Series of Letters Addressed to the Students of His Class. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Blanchard and Lea. p. 104. From p. 104: Speaking of a physician in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Meigs said: "He is a gentlemen who is scrupulously careful of his personal appearance, … But a gentleman's hands are clean."
- ^ Gordon R (1983). "Disastrous Motherhood: Tales from the Vienna Wards". Great Medical Disasters. London: Hutchinson & Co. pp. 43–46 [43].
- ^ Treves F (1923). "Ch. 2: The Old Receiving Room". The Elephant Man and Other Reminiscences. London, England: Cassell and Company, Ltd. pp. 56–57.
- ^ Gordon, Richard (1983) p. 44
- S2CID 29047987.
- ^ Christa Colyer."Childbed fever: a nineteenth-century mystery," Archived 2009-04-16 at the Wayback Machine National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science, December 8, 1999 (revised October 27, 2003).
- ^ Colebrook, L; Kenny, M (June 6, 1936). "Treatment of Human Puerperal Infections, and of Experimental Infections in Mice, with Prontosil".Lancet 227(1): 1279–1286.
- ISBN 978-0-7234-3344-6. Retrieved 2009-08-05.
- ^ Quoted from Will Durant's "The Age of Rousseau".[full citation needed]
Further reading
- Chaim W, Burstein E (August 2003). "Postpartum infection treatments: a review". Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy (review). 4 (8): 1297–313. S2CID 26781321.
- French L (August 2003). "Prevention and treatment of postpartum endometritis". Current Women's Health Reports (review). 3 (4): 274–9. PMID 12844449.
- Calhoun BC, Brost B (June 1995). "Emergency management of sudden puerperal fever". Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinics of North America (review). 22 (2): 357–67. PMID 7651676.