ABSTRACT
Background: Premature rupture of membranes (PROM) remains a subject of great clinical relevance. The present study was conducted to study maternal morbidity and its relationship with PROM-delivery interval in patients with term PROM as compared to patients without PROM.Methods: A prospective case control study was conducted in the department of obstetrics and gynecology, Kasturba Hospital, New Delhi. 100 pregnant patients presenting to the labor room with features of PROM at term (POG>37 weeks) were taken as cases and 100 term pregnant women (age and parity matched) with intact membranes were taken as controls and compared in terms of maternal outcome.Results: This study reported maternal morbidity rate of 21% in term PROM cases which was significantly higher than in control group (5%). The major cause was febrile morbidity which occurred in 16% of cases indicating ascending infection. Other complications were abdominal and episiotomy wound infection (4%), chorioamnionitis (2%), postpartum hemorrhage (2%) and puerperal sepsis (1%). There was an increased rate of operative delivery in the case group (33%) as compared to 18% in patients without PROM. Duration of PROM-delivery interval had a significant direct proportional impact on the maternal morbidity. The duration of combined hospital stay of mother and neonate was also increased.Conclusions: Patients with term PROM have significant maternal morbidity which was mainly due to infection. The duration of the hospital stay was also significantly increased.