Effects of cervical dilatation during cesarean section on postpartum process

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate the effects of cervical dilatation on postoperative maternal morbidity during a cesarean. Methods: Pregnant women who applied to Nisa Hospital between 01 June 2019 and 31 August 2019 were included in this study. The cases were compared according to whether cervical dilatation was performed or not. For all cases, evaluation included fever during the postpartum process, preoperative hemoglobin and leukocytes, postoperative 6th-hour hemoglobin and leukocytes, wound infection in postpartum 1st week, postpartum bleeding and postpartum 6th-month scar thickness. Results: In this study, 95 women were included. There were 48 (50.5%) women in the cervical dilatation group and 47 (49.5%) women in the non-cervical dilatation group. The pre- and postoperative hemogram values of the individuals in both groups were compared. In the cervical dilatation group, hemoglobin was 11.9 (7.7- 14.6) g/dL in the preoperative period and 11.4 (7.6-14.5) g/dL in the postoperative period (p<0.001). However, hemoglobin was 11.3 (6.4-13.0) g/dL in the preoperative period and 11.3 (8.3-15.2) g/dL in the postoperative period of the non-cervical dilatation group (p=0.459). Concerning wound infection, fever, bleeding and scar thickness in both groups after birth, only the dilated group was found to be significantly thick in terms of scar thickness in the sixth month (p<0.001). Conclusion: In our study the mean of difference of hemoglobin and hematocrit values were found to be sig-nificantly higher in the cervical dilatation group. Besides this, significant results were found in the dilatation group in terms of long-term scar thickness.