Maternal mortality: an autopsy audit.

BACKGROUND: The process of audit standardizes protocols in departments and has long-term benefits. Maternal autopsies though routinely performed, deserve a special attention. AIMS: This study was carried out to calculate the maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in a tertiary care hospital and to correlate final cause of death with the clinical diagnosis. An audit of maternal autopsies was carried out to evaluate current practices, identify fallacies and suggest corrective measures to rectify them. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighty-nine autopsies of maternal deaths in the period 2003 to 2007 were studied in detail along with the clinical details. RESULTS: There were 158 maternal deaths and 13940 live births in this five-year period. Maternal mortality rate was found to be very high (1133/ 100000 live births) in our institution with a high number of complicated referral cases (68/89 cases, 76%). Of the 89 autopsies, acute fulminant viral hepatitis was the commonest cause of indirect maternal deaths (37 cases, 41.5%). This was followed by direct causes like pregnancy-induced hypertension (12 cases, 13.4%) and puerperal sepsis (10 cases, 11.2%). Certain fallacies were noted during the audit process. CONCLUSION: During the audit it was realized that in maternal mortality autopsies, special emphasis should be given to clinicopathologic correlation, microbiological studies, identification of thromboembolic phenomenon and adequate sectioning of relevant organs. We found difficulty in identification of placental bed in the uterus in postpartum autopsies. A systematic approach can help us for better understanding of the pathophysiology of diseases occurring in pregnancy.

Primary anaplastic large cell lymphoma of central nervous system--a case report.

Central nervous system (CNS) involvement is extremely rare in anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). Primary ALCL of CNS on radiology is often misdiagnosed as tuberculosis. We report a fatal case of primary ALCL of CNS in a 17 year old male. He came with history of headache and left partial seizures. MRI showed a well- circumscribed lesion in the right fronto-parietal lobe eroding the skull bone. Biopsy showed large pleomorphic cells. Immunohistochemical stains showed positivity for CD30, CD43, EMA and ALK-1. In spite of radiotherapy and steroids, patient expired. Hence a high level of suspicion is essential for early diagnosis and for instituting appropriate treatment.