Objectives:

To describe the frequency of maternal complications in pregnant women with major or minor placenta previa (PP), and to assess a potential association between PP type and the presence of severe maternal bleeding and other associated outcomes.

Material and methods:

Retrospective descriptive cohort. The study included pregnant women with 20 weeks of gestation or more and a confirmed diagnosis of placenta previa who were seen in a high complexity hospital in Cali (Colombia), between January 2011 and December 2020. Women with a diagnosis of placenta previa and concomitant placenta accreta were excluded. The collected variables were maternal age, body mass index, smoking, obesity, parity, presence of bleeding, postpartum hemorrhage, management of postpartum hemorrhage, transfusion, and maternal ICU admission. A descriptive analysis was performed. The protocol was approved by the ethics committee of Fundaciónn Valle de Lili.

Results:

A total of 146 patients met the inclusion criteria. The population consisted of women with a mean age of 32 years, with no history of prior surgery, with a prenatal diagnosis of placente previa at week 22; 70% were major placenta previa cases. The most frequent complications were postpartum hemorrhage (37.9 % vs. 16.3 % for patients with major and minor placenta previa, respectively), transfusion requirement (23.3 and 9.3 %, respectively), and maternal ICU admission (40.8 % vs. 18.6 %, respectively). There were no cases of maternal death.

Conclusions:

There is a high frequency of complications in women with placenta previa, and it is probably higher in cases of major placenta previa. Further studies are needed to compare the frequency of maternal complications according to the type of placenta previa.

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