Abstract

REDONDO-DE ORO, Katherine; GOMEZ-VILLA, Jorge; BARRIOS-GARCIA, Lía  and  ALVIS-ESTRADA, Luis. Identification of the causes of foetal demise in a maternal care institution in Cartagena, Colombia, 2012-2014. Rev Colomb Obstet Ginecol [online]. 2016, vol.67, n.3, pp.187-196. ISSN 0034-7434.  https://doi.org/10.18597/rcog.766.

Objective: To determine the causes of foetal demise documented in a public referral institution in Cartagena, Colombia between 2012-2014. Materials and methods: Case series including foetal demises taken to autopsy at the Rafael Calvo Maternal Clinic in Cartagena, a level II public institution that sees patients affiliated to the State subsidised healthcare regime. A consecutive sampling was used. Gestational age, sex and the clinical cause of death were analysed using the ReCoDe system in which 9 categories are used to classify foetal demise. Descriptive statistics are used to present the results. Results: Overall, 458 foetuses with an autopsy report were assessed. Possible or probable cause of death was established in 440 cases (97 %). The main conditions associated with foetal death were placental insufficiency (44.7 %), followed by amniotic fluid abnormalities (18.6 %), maternal causes (12.8 %), and foetal causes (12 %). Of all the cases, 2.8 % were classified as unexplained. Conclusions: The ReCoDe classification system was useful for classifying the cause of death in 97 % of foetal demises taken to autopsy.

Keywords : Foetal demise; autopsy; aetiology; stillborn.

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