The effect of uterine closure technique on cesarean scar niche development after multiple cesarean deliveries.

OBJECTIVES: To use saline infusion sonohysterography (SIS) to evaluate the effect of uterine closure technique on niche formation after multiple cesarean deliveries (CDs). METHODS: Patients with at least one prior CD were evaluated for niche via SIS. Subgroups of any number repeat CD (>1 prior), lower-order CD (<4 prior), and higher-order CD (≥4 prior) were analyzed, stratifying by hysterotomy closure technique at last cesarean preceding imaging; techniques included Technique A (endometrium-free double-layer closure) and Technique B (single- or double-layer routine endo-myometrial closure). Niche defects were quantified (depth, length, width, and residual myometrial thickness). The primary outcome was clinically significant niche, defined as depth >2 mm. Statistical analysis was performed using chi-square, ANOVA, t-test, Kruskal-Wallis, and multiple logistic regression, with p-values of <0.05 were statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 172 post-cesarean SIS studies were reviewed: 105 after repeat CDs, 131 after lower-order CDs, and 41 after higher-order CDs. Technique A was associated with a shorter interval to imaging and more double-layer closures. Technique B was associated with more clinically significant niches across all subgroups, and these niches were significantly longer and deeper when present. Multiple logistic regression demonstrated a 5.6, 8.1, and 11-fold increased adjusted odds of clinically significant niche following Technique B closure in the repeat CD (p<0.01), lower-order CD (p<0.001), and higher-order CD (p=0.04) groups, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: While multiple CDs are known to increase risk for niche defects and their sequelae, hysterotomy closure technique may help to reduce niche development and severity.

Clinical potential of human amniotic fluid stem cells.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether amniotic fluid derived stem cells maintain their stem cell characteristics (a) after processing by a licensed cell therapy center and (b) after the cells undergo simulated clinical application. METHODS: Amniotic fluid was collected by laparotomy - a small uterine incision was made at proposed site for delivery and a sterile catheter inserted to collect fluid into a sterile bag. After flow stopped the catheter was withdrawn, the cesarean completed and the collected fluid delivered to the cell therapy center for processing and cryostorage. A clinical setting was simulated where amniotic fluid cells received from cell therapy center were thawed at room temperature for a maximum of 3 h and passed through a clinical cell delivery device to monitor cell viability. The cells were examined for viability, stability, growth, differentiation, and markers of stemness. RESULTS: Amniotic fluid stem cells processed from a clinical cell therapy center behave similarly to amniotic fluid stem cells processed in a research laboratory with respects to viability, stability, growth, differentiation and maintain markers of stemness. There were differences due to heterogeneity of samples which were not methodological. Growth in cell culture and differentiation were satisfactory. Simulation of treating the cells in a clinical environment show a general stability in viability of amniotic fluid cells at room temperature for 3 h minimum and when passed through a clinically approved delivery device. CONCLUSIONS: The data indicate human amniotic fluid processed in a clinical facility could be used therapeutically if proven to be safe.

A new era in teaching: how advanced optical recording technology could change the postcesarean delivery complication conundrum.

BACKGROUND: The last 4 decades have seen increased complications after cesarean deliveries. Despite an incomplete understanding of their etiology, surgical practices have been adopted, creating disproportionate morbidity and the absence of preventive strategies. Additional research tools are needed for further investigation. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the VITOM high-definition optical recording system as a tool to highlight cesarean operative steps and surgical techniques and assess the use of its video recordings for operating room team teaching and research potential. STUDY DESIGN: Contemporaneous cesarean delivery techniques offer no resolution to long-term postcesarean sequelae. From March 2015 to February 2022, a novel tool, VITOM exoscope, was evaluated and used to photograph and video record 104 elective cesarean deliveries. The images were projected on a large screen to be viewed by scrubbed-in and unscrubbed personnel and recorded for future use. During this period, staff participants in 3 designated operating rooms reached 514, including 168 trainee residents, 5 nurse practitioners, 6 physician assistants, 21 medical students, 70 surgical technicians, and 110 circulating nurses. The maternal ages of patients varied from 21 to 49 years. Gestational ages ranged from 28 0/7 to 41 6/7 weeks of gestation. Selected photographs of crucial cesarean surgical steps were taken and printed. Video recordings were stored in designated institutional data storage and uploaded onto a secure drive for further use. After every case, debriefing was held, and subjective opinions were obtained from the various participants. RESULTS: The VITOM was used for 104 cesarean deliveries. Setup time was reduced from 7 minutes initially to 3 minutes with more experience. All staff participants had only positive evaluations and remarks about the image quality and the clear delineation of specific anatomic landmarks. By polling medical students and residents in training, the VITOM experience was described as very useful and, in a few cases, only somewhat useful. The scrubbed surgical technicians and circulating nurses gained a better understanding of surgical layers, improving their ability to anticipate subsequent surgical steps, thereby streamlining operating flow and efficiency. Unscrubbed personnel could also follow the operation's progression despite being remote from the sterile field. Anesthesiologists could follow the operative field and eventual blood loss in plain view. Recorded videos and still photographs were used at clinical teaching conferences and in peer-reviewed publications, enhancing understanding of cesarean delivery techniques. CONCLUSION: The VITOM exoscope provided superb image quality, enabling a clear vision of the anatomic structures of the cesarean operation. It is a promising additional research tool to capture important details of the employed surgical techniques and provides a possible insight into long-term postcesarean sequelae.

Variations in uterine closure technique: an institutional survey of obstetricians and implications for patient counseling and prevention of adverse sequelae.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the diversity of uterine closure techniques (UCTs) among providers in one institution and evaluate concurrent consideration of adverse outcomes for patient counseling, provisional care, and prevention. METHODS: Forty-four obstetricians at NYU Langone Health were emailed a survey of their uterine closure technique, patient counseling, and practice experience. Results were stratified by years of practice: ≤5, 5-20, and 20-40 years. RESULTS: Thirty-nine obstetricians (88.6%) completed the survey. Among those, a blunt uterine opening was preferred by 29 (74.4%), and a mid-lower segment location was favored by 34 (87.2%). At uterine closure, the endometrium was included by 20 (51.3%), with half a centimeter or more incorporated in the myometrial closure, whereas 15 (38.5%) did not factor in the endometrium's presence. Closure duration varied from 1 to 20 min, with 21 (53.9%) lasting 1-5 min and 12 (30.8%) lasting 5-10 min. All physicians were familiar with the potential post-cesarean complications and counseled their patients accordingly; 25 (64.1%) at the first post-op visit while 14 (35.9%) did so before the next conception. Practitioners with fewer years in practice endorsed the safety of up to five consecutive cesarean births, while those with more experience approved up to ten. Thirty-two obstetricians (82.1%) stated that the risk of abnormal placentation is exclusively associated with the number of cesarean sections, whereas five (12.8%) senior obstetricians asserted that individual surgical techniques are most impactful. CONCLUSIONS: The survey illustrates that various UCTs are performed irrespective of potential adverse sequelae and without consideration for subsequent patient counseling and care. Ongoing research must study the impact of UCT on scar healing to formulate preventive strategies for post-cesarean complications.

The Impact of Uterine Incision Closure Techniques on Post-cesarean Delivery Niche Formation and Size: Sonohysterographic Examination of Nonpregnant Women.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the prevalence and size of residual niche in the nongravid uterus following Cesarean delivery (CD) with different hysterotomy closure techniques (HCTs). METHODS: Saline infusion sonohysterogram (SIS) was performed in women after one prior CD, documenting the presence or absence of a postoperative niche and measuring its depth, width, length, and residual myometrial thickness. Women were grouped by HCT: Technique A (endometrium-free) and Technique B (routine non-endometrium-free). The primary outcome was the prevalence of a clinically significant niche, defined as a depth of >2 mm. HCT groups were compared using χ2 , T-test (ANOVA), and analyzed using logistic regression and two-sided test (P < .05). RESULTS: Forty-five women had SIS performed, 25 and 20 via Technique A and B, respectively. Technique groups varied by average interval time from CD to SIS (13.6 versus 74.5 months, P = 0.006) but were otherwise similar. Twenty niches were diagnosed, 85% of which were clinically significant, including five following Technique A, nine following Technique B with double-layer closure, and three following Technique B with single-layer (P = .018). The average niche depth was 2.4 mm and 4.9 mm among the two-layer subgroups following Techniques A and B, respectively (P = .005). A clinically significant niche development was six times higher with Technique B when compared to Technique A (OR 6.0, 95% CI 1.6-22.6, P = .008); this significance persisted after controlling for SIS interval on multivariate analysis (OR 4.4, 95% CI 1.1-18.3, P = .04). The average niche depth was 5.7 ± 2.9 mm following Technique B with single-layer. CONCLUSION: Hysterotomy closure techniques determine the prevalence of post-Cesarean delivery niche formation and size. Exclusion of the endometrium at uterine closure reduces the development of significant scar defects.

Multi-modal Framework for Fetal Heart Rate Estimation: Fusion of Low-SNR ECG and Inertial Sensors.

This study presents a novel multi-modal framework for fetal heart rate extraction, which incorporates wearable seismo-cardiography (SCG), gyro-cardiography (GCG), and electrocardiography (ECG) readings from ten pregnant women. Firstly, a signal refinement method based on empirical mode decomposition (EMD) is proposed to extract the desired signal components associated with fetal heart rate (FHR). Afterwards, two techniques are developed to fuse the information from different modalities. The first method, named early fusion, is intended to combine the refined signals of different modalities through intra-modality fusion, intermodality fusion, and FHR estimation. The other fusion approach, i.e., late fusion, includes FHR estimation and intermodality FHR fusion. FHR values are estimated and compared with readings from a simultaneously-recorded cardiotocography (CTG) sensor. It is demonstrated that the best performance belongs to the late-fusion approach with 87.00% of positive percent agreement (PPA), 6.30% of absolute percent error (APE), and 10.55 beats-per-minute (BPM) of root-meansquare-error (RMSE).Clinical Relevance- The proposed framework allows for the continuous monitoring of the health status of the fetus in expectant women. The approach is accurate and cost-effective due to the use of advanced signal processing techniques and lowcost wearable sensors, respectively.

Endometrium-free uterine closure technique and abnormal placental implantation in subsequent pregnancies.

BACKGROUND: Abnormal placentation can result in massive hemorrhage, which is the leading cause of severe maternal morbidities and mortality in its management. Over the past 50 years, the incidence of placenta previa (PP), abnormal implantation of the placenta, and cesarean scar pregnancy have continued to rise. This coincides with the well-documented parallel rise in the rate of cesarean deliveries, the performance of multiple repeat cesarean deliveries and the adoption of newer uterine closure techniques. However, no studies have examined the role of uterine closure techniques in abnormal placentation in women with a history of a prior cesarean delivery. OBJECTIVE: To assess the practicality of one specific uterine closure technique at cesarean delivery and to evaluate the relationship between previous cesarean delivery and subsequent development of abnormal implantation of the placenta, as well as neonatal and other perioperative outcomes after receiving an endometrium-free uterine closure technique. METHODS: This retrospective observational study considered cesarean deliveries (n = 727) and subsequent vaginal births after cesarean delivery (n = 109) among total deliveries (n = 4496) performed in private practice at NYU Langone Health from 1985 to 2015. All cesarean deliveries were performed using the endometrium-free uterine closure technique. The primary outcome was the incidence of abnormal implantation of the placenta in subsequent pregnancies. The secondary outcomes were neonatal and maternal complications, specifically postoperative hemoglobin and hematocrit concentration losses. The association between independent variables and outcomes were evaluated using mixed-effect regression models. RESULTS: In contrast to published data, independent of the number of repeat cesarean deliveries, the presence of 26 (3.1%) PPs and of 366 (43.8%) anterior placentas, there were no patients with abnormal implantation of the placenta in a cesarean scar, neither prenatally nor at delivery. Maternal hemorrhage, postoperative and neonatal complications did not reach clinical significance. The statistical analysis revealed that, when compared with women who had fewer repeat cesarean deliveries using endometrium-free uterine closure technique, those with the most had a lesser risk of forming PP and less blood loss, as measured by both hematocrit and hemoglobin evaluation. CONCLUSION: In this retrospective cohort study, the exclusion of the endometrium during the endometrium-free uterine closure technique was associated with fewer placental abnormalities in subsequent pregnancies and reduced life-threatening maternal morbidity for future cesarean deliveries.

Cesarean section one hundred years 1920-2020: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

In present-day obstetrics, cesarean delivery occurs in one in three women in the United States, and in up to four of five women in some regions of the world. The history of cesarean section extends well over four centuries. Up until the end of the nineteenth century, the operation was avoided because of its high mortality rate. In 1926, the Munro Kerr low transverse uterine incision was introduced and became the standard method for the next 50 years. Since the 1970's, newer surgical techniques gradually became the most commonly used method today because of intraoperative and postpartum benefits. Concurrently, despite attempts to encourage vaginal birth after previous cesareans, the cesarean delivery rate increased steadily from 5 to 30-32% over the last 10 years, with a parallel increase in costs as well as short- and long-term maternal, neonatal and childhood complications. Attempts to reduce the rate of cesarean deliveries have been largely unsuccessful because of the perceived safety of the operation, short-term postpartum benefits, the legal climate and maternal request in the absence of indications. In the United States, as the cesarean delivery rate has increased, maternal mortality and morbidity have also risen steadily over the last three decades, disproportionately impacting black women as compared to other races. Extensive data on the prenatal diagnosis and management of cesarean-related abnormal placentation have improved outcomes of affected women. Fewer data are available however for the improvement of outcomes of cesarean-related gynecological conditions. In this review, the authors address the challenges and opportunities to research, educate and change health effects associated with cesarean delivery for all women.