Uterine necrosis following uterine artery embolization as treatment for postpartum hemorrhage: A case report and literature review.

Uterine necrosis is a rare complication of uterine artery embolization for postpartum hemorrhage and most patients end up having a hysterectomy. Here we report a case in which the patient experienced a recurrent fever 28 days after uterine artery embolization as treatment for postpartum hemorrhage and had no response to antibiotics. Magnetic resonance imaging of the pelvis revealed a mass which was approximately 12-cm in size with air bubbles in the uterus, suggesting necrosis with infection. Transvaginal clamping of the uterine mass was performed and necrotic tissue removed under laparoscopic monitoring, which successfully spared the necessity for a hysterectomy. The patient's subsequent progress was favorable. In the present study we review the high-risk factors of uterine necrosis following uterine artery embolization and summarize the key points of early diagnosis. In addition, we propose a strategy to successfully spare the necessity for a hysterectomy without the spread of infection or uterine perforation.

Analysis of the microbiome in maternal, intrauterine and fetal environments based on 16S rRNA genes following different durations of membrane rupture.

The incidence of chorioamnionitis and neonatal sepsis increases with the increasing time of rupture of membranes. Changes in the amount and categories of microbiomes in maternal and fetal environments after membrane rupture have yet to be discussed. In order to determine the microbiome diversity and signature in the maternal, intrauterine, and fetal environments of different durations following membrane rupture, we collected samples of fetal membrane, amniotic fluid, cord blood and maternal peripheral blood from singleton pregnant women and divided them into five groups according to the duration of membrane rupture. DNA was isolated from the samples, and the V3V4 region of bacterial 16S rRNA genes was sequenced. We found that the alpha diversity of the fetal membrane microbiome increased significantly 12 h after membrane rupture, while the beta diversity of the amniotic fluid microbiome increased 24 h after membrane rupture. In cord blood, the mean proportion of Methylobacterium and Halomonadaceae reached the highest 12 h after membrane rupture, and the mean proportion of Prevotella reached the highest 24 h after membrane rupture. The LEfSe algorithm showed that Ruminococcus, Paludibaculum, Lachnospiraceae, and Prevotella were detected earlier in cord blood or maternal blood and then detected in fetal membranes or amniotic fluid, which may suggest a reverse infection model. In conclusion, the microbes may invade the placenta 12 h after membrane rupture and invaded the amniotic cavity 24 h after membrane rupture. In addition to the common ascending pattern of infection, the hematogenous pathway of intrauterine infection should also be considered among people with rupture of membranes.

Risk factors of maternal intrapartum fever and the effect of fever duration on neonatal morbidity in different temperature.

AIM: To investigate the clinical risk factors of intrapartum fever and explore the relationship between fever duration and neonatal morbidity of different fever peak. METHODS: A case-control study was conducted, and 714 pregnant women were divided into fever and nonfever group. Multivariable logistic regression model was estimated to evaluate the risk factors for maternal intrapartum fever. Receiver operating characteristic curve was adopted to explore the relationship between fever duration and fetal distress of different fever peak to find the cut-off point, then the neonatal outcomes of women with fever ≥38°C in two groups of different fever duration were compared. RESULTS: Epidural analgesia (odds ratio [OR]: 6.89, p < 0.001), longer time of membrane rupture (OR: 1.06, p < 0.001) and longer time of first stage of labor (OR: 1.04, p = 0.03) were considered as independent risk factors for maternal fever. For women with temperature <38°C, fever duration was not associated with fetal distress, whereas the women with temperature ≥38°C, fever duration longer than 93.5 min was a good predictor of fetal distress (Area under curve (AUC) = 0.82, p < 0.05). Further analysis showed that infants of women with fever peak ≥38°C and fever duration longer than 90 min had a higher rate of 1 min Apgar score <7 (15.5% vs. 2.2%, p = 0.03), assisted ventilation (29.6% vs. 11.1%, p = 0.02), and admission to neonatal ward (87.3% vs. 60.0%, p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Epidural analgesia, longer time of membrane rupture, and longer time of first stage of labor were considered as independent risk factors for maternal intrapartum fever. For women with fever ≥38°C, controlling fever time less than 90 min might be helpful to reduce neonatal morbidity.

Outcomes of prophylactic abdominal aortic balloon occlusion in patients with placenta previa accreta: a propensity score matching analysis.

BACKGROUND: Placenta previa accreta is a life-threatening pregnancy complication, and reducing blood loss during operative treatment remains a major challenge. The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of prophylactic abdominal aortic balloon occlusion (AABO) during caesarean section in women with placenta previa accreta. METHODS: A retrospective study of women with placenta previa accreta was conducted in a tertiary hospital from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2020. Women were divided into balloon and control groups by whether AABO was performed. Baseline characteristics and pregnancy outcomes were compared in the two groups. A propensity score analysis was applied to minimise the indication bias. The primary outcome was composite, including estimated blood loss (EBL) ≥ 2.0 L, massive transfusion and hysterectomy. RESULTS: A total of 156 patients participated in this study, with 68 in the balloon group and 88 in the control group. Propensity score analysis showed that women in the balloon group had less EBL (1590.36 ± 1567.57 vs. 2830.36 ± 2285.58 mL, P = 0.02) as well as a lower proportion of EBL ≥ 1.0 L (50.00% vs. 78.57%, P = 0.03), EBL ≥ 2.0 L (21.43% vs. 50.00%, P = 0.03) and EBL ≥ 3.0 L (14.29% vs. 42.86%, P = 0.04). In addition, women in the control group received more red blood cell transfusions (8.43 U ± 9.96 vs. 3.43 U ± 6.27, P = 0.03), and the proportion of massive transfusions was higher (35.71% vs. 7.14%, P = 0.02). The proportions of disseminated intravascular coagulation (0% vs. 28.57%, P < 0.01), haemorrhagic shock (3.57% vs. 32.14%, P = 0.02) and hysterectomy (10.71% vs. 39.29%, P = 0.03) were significantly lower in the balloon group. Sutures were performed more often in the balloon group (64.29% vs. 17.86%, P < 0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that AABO was associated with the primary outcome (adjusted odds ratio 0.46, 95% confidence interval 0.23 ~ 0.96, P = 0.04). No serious balloon catheter-related complications occurred in the balloon group. CONCLUSION: AABO was an effective and safe approach to improve maternal outcomes for patients with placenta previa accreta.

Changing Trends of Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes With Maternal Pre-pregnancy Body Mass Index: A Join-Point Analysis.

Objective: Adverse pregnancy outcomes have been related to obesity and thinness; however, the changing trends of the specific outcome with pre-pregnancy BMI remain unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the change in risk trends of specific adverse outcomes for different pre-pregnancy BMI and analyze the recommended BMI range for pre-pregnancy counseling. Methods: Data were extracted from the medical records of 39 public hospitals across 14 provinces in China from 2011 to 2012. The eligibility criteria were singleton birth with delivery week ≥28 weeks. Join-point analysis was adopted to explore changing trends with pre-pregnancy BMI and calculate slopes and join points of different pregnancy complications. Results: A total of 65,188 women were eligible for analysis. There were three categories of trend style. Continuously increasing trends were linear for intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy, postpartum hemorrhage, and low 1-min Apgar score, and non-linear for cesarean delivery with one join point of BMI 23, hypertension disorder in pregnancy with two join points of BMI 20 and 28, gestational diabetes mellitus with one join point of BMI 22, and macrosomia with one join point of BMI 19. The trend was continuously and linearly decreasing for anemia. The bidirectional trends were downward and upward for premature rupture of the membrane with join BMI 22, preterm premature rupture of the membrane with join BMI 22, placenta abruption with join BMI 23, preterm birth with join BMI 19, and low birth weight with join BMI 19. Conclusions: The changes in the trends of specific outcomes differed with pre-pregnancy BMI. Our results suggested that a pre-pregnancy BMI ranging between 19 and 23 may help reduce the risk of poor maternal and neonatal outcomes.

Dinoprostone pessary for labor induction in Chinese patients with premature rupture of membranes at term: A retrospective cohort.

AIM: Whether the use of dinoprostone pessary increased the vaginal delivery rate of labor induction in Chinese nulliparous women with term premature rupture of membranes (PROM) and unfavorable cervices? METHODS: PROM women at term with singleton pregnancies and Bishop scores ≤4 who needed labor induction were enrolled in this retrospective study. They received either the dinoprostone pessary followed by oxytocin infusion if necessary (n = 102, PGE2 group) or oxytocin infusion alone (n = 103, oxytocin group). RESULTS: Compared with oxytocin infusion alone, vaginal delivery within 12 h and total vaginal delivery were higher in the PGE2 group (28.4% vs 7.8%, p = 0.0001; 79.4% vs 62.1%, p = 0.009, respectively). There were no statistical differences between the two groups in terms of maternal and neonatal outcomes, such as postpartum hemorrhage, endometritis, third- and fourth-degree vaginal lacerations and neonatal weight, 1- and 5-min Apgar score ≤7, neonatal jaundice, and neonatal unit admission (p > 0.05). However, there was a higher rate of uterine hyperstimulation in the PGE2 group (20.6% vs 3.9%, p < 0.0001). The effective rate of cervical ripening increased in the PGE2 group at 8 and 12 h of labor induction (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Despite higher rates of uterine hyperstimulation, the use of dinoprostone was associated with higher rates of vaginal deliveries in Chinese nulliparous women with term PROM and Bishop scores ≤4, compared with use of oxytocin only.

Construction of Ag2O-modified g-C3N4 photocatalyst for rapid visible light degradation of ofloxacin.

The design of stable and highly efficient photocatalysts had emerged as an economic and promising way for eliminating harmful pharmaceutical pollutants. In this study, a series of Ag2O-modified g-C3N4 composites with different Ag2O amounts (denoted as Ag2O-CNx) were fabricated via a facile reflux condensation methodology. Ofloxacin (OFL) was chosen as a model pollutant to evaluate the degradation efficiency of the photocatalytic system. The optimal photocatalytic activity was achieved with Ag2O-CN1.0, which reached up to 99.1% removal of OFL after 15-min reaction and the pseudo-first-order constant was 0.469 min-1, approximately 42 times higher than that of g-C3N4. Considering the complexity of the actual environment, the important influential factors such as catalyst dosage, initial OFL concentration, solution pH, and natural organic matter on the OFL degradation were systematically investigated. Additionally, Ag2O-CN1.0 showed good stability and recyclability in multiple cycle experiments. The feasible photodegradation mechanism of OFL was proposed with radical scavenger experiments, and the degradation products were determined. Furthermore, the enhanced photocatalytic activity could be ascribed to not only the high photogenerated charge separation efficiency and the surface plasmon resonance effect of metallic Ag, but also the p-n heterojunction formed between Ag2O and g-C3N4. Therefore, Ag2O-CN1.0 was a treatment material possessing great application prospects for eliminating OFL in wastewater.

A cohort study of the impact of epidural analgesia on maternal and neonatal outcomes.

AIM: To explore the impact of epidural analgesia on maternal and neonatal outcomes, especially the relation between epidural analgesia and intrapartum fever. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted in a tertiary hospital for all deliveries from November 2017 to December 2017. A total of 506 women were divided into epidural and non-epidural group by whether to receive analgesia or not. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed with P < 0.05 as significant. RESULTS: Epidural analgesia was associated with higher risk of maternal intrapartum fever (relative risk [RR] = 3.28, 95% confidence interval, 1.55-6.95), more intravenous use of antibiotics (36.66% vs 17.04%, P<0.001), longer time of second stage (58.55 ± 33.75 vs 47.39 ± 28.36 min，P = 0.001) and longer total duration of labor (790.32 ± 433.71 vs 461.33 ± 270.39 min，P<0.001), but had no influence on mode of delivery, the amount of post-partum hemorrhage or hospital stay after delivery and all the neonatal outcomes we studied. Further time effect analysis found that epidural analgesia less than 6 h did not increase the risk of intrapartum fever (RR = 1.73, P = 0.15), however, when epidural analgesia lasted over 6 h, it significantly increased the risk of fever (RR = 5.23, P<0.001) but did not increase more adverse outcomes. CONCLUSION: Having epidural anesthesia 6 h or more increases the risk of developing fever, but the prognosis of mothers and children is less affected.