Emergency Cerclage: Improvement of Outcomes by Standardization of Management.

Introduction: Cervical dilatation followed by prolapse and ballooning of membranes into the vagina at mid-gestation is a critical situation. The aim of this study was to describe the outcome of emergency cerclage in a tertiary referral center during a 10-year period (2001-2010) in which a defined selection of women and standard protocol were introduced.

Subjects And Methods: Thirty-nine cases of emergency cervical cerclage performed before 24 completed weeks were retrospectively reviewed.

Visual analysis of antepartum fetal heart rate tracings: inter- and intra-observer agreement and impact of knowledge of neonatal outcome.

Objective: To evaluate the inter- and intra-observer agreement of visual analysis of fetal heart rate tracing and to evaluate the bias introduced by knowledge of perinatal outcome in this interpretation.

Methods: One hundred tracings were independently analyzed by four observers. In a second study period, two observers re-analysed the 100 tracings in order to evaluate intra-observer agreement.