Intrauterine balloon tamponade for the control of postpartum haemorrhage.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of balloon temponade in the management of postpartum haemorrhage.

Methods: The study was conducted at the Dow University of Health Sciences and Civil Hospital Karachi from January to July 18, 2012, and comprised women aged 18-35 years, parity 1-6 and gestational age 31-41 weeks, who developed or were admitted with primary postpartum haemorrhage due to uterine atony in whom medical treatment had failed. SPSS 10 was used to analyse the data.

Results: The mean age, parity, gestational age of 139 women was 26.4±4.2 years, 3.4±1.3, 37.81±1.67 respectively. Mean estimated blood loss was 1155.8±350.6 ml, mean systolic blood pressure 90.96±18.1 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure 55±7.5 mmHg and mean pulse was 108.3±10.89 bpm. Balloon tamponade was effective in 126(90.4%) cases.

Conclusions: Condom catheter balloon tamponade was an effective means of controlling postpartum haemorrhage. There should be a low threshold for use of balloon tamponade as it is effective, easy to use, easily available, has low complication rate, and an inexpensive modality to manage non-traumatic postpartum haemorrhage, especially in resource-limited settings, and still maintain reproductive ability.