Antibiotic Use Without Indication During Delivery Hospitalizations in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze trends in unindicated antibiotic use during vaginal delivery hospitalization. METHODS: This study used an administrative database to analyze antibiotic use during delivery hospitalizations from January 2006 to March 2015. Women were classified by mode of delivery and whether they had an evidence-based indication for antibiotics. Indications for antibiotics included preterm prelabor rupture of membranes (PROM), cesarean delivery, group B streptococcus (GBS) colonization, chorioamnionitis, endometritis, urinary tract infections, and other infections. The Cochran-Armitage test was used to assess trends of antibiotic administration. Unadjusted and adjusted analyses for antibiotic receipt including demographic, hospital, and obstetric and medical factors were performed with unadjusted and adjusted risk ratios (RRs) with 95% CIs as measures of association. RESULTS: A total of 5,536,756 delivery hospitalizations, including 2,872,286 vaginal deliveries without an indication for antibiotics, were analyzed. The most common indication for antibiotics was cesarean delivery (33.6% of the entire cohort), followed by GBS colonization (15.8%), chorioamnionitis (1.7%), preterm PROM (1.6%), endometritis (1.2%), urinary tract infections (0.6%), and other infections (total less than 0.5%). The proportion of women receiving unindicated antibiotics decreased 44.4%, from 38.1% in 2006 to 21.2% in 2015. Adjusted risk for receipt of unindicated antibiotics was lower in 2015 vs 2006 (adjusted RR 0.56, 95% CI 0.55-0.57). CONCLUSION: Use of antibiotics during vaginal delivery hospitalizations without an indication for antibiotic use declined significantly based on an analysis of a large administrative data set.

Incorporating Precesarean Vaginal Preparation Into Standard of Care for Obstetrics.

Postoperative infections remain a serious concern after cesarean delivery, the most common major surgical procedure in the United States. Multiple strategies have been proposed to combat this problem, including the addition of azithromycin to the standard preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis. However, as obstetricians, we have failed to uniformly adopt precesarean vaginal preparation despite convincing evidence from randomized controlled trials that this technique reduces postoperative rates of endometritis by more than 50%. This reduction is similar to that seen with the addition of azithromycin. Vaginal preparation with povidone-iodine solution may target the same genital pathogens as azithromycin, which are commonly implicated in endometritis, a polymicrobial infection that may be under-addressed by our current antiseptic techniques. A recent review of maternal-fetal medicine fellows' practices at the time of cesarean delivery and recent publications on precesarean vaginal cleansing suggest that this practice has not yet gained hold in the United States.

Use of Antihypertensive Medications and Uterotonics During Delivery Hospitalizations in Women With Asthma.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate whether the diagnosis of asthma is associated with the use of specific uterotonic and antihypertensive medications during delivery hospitalizations. METHODS: We used Perspective, an administrative database, to determine whether women hospitalized for delivery complicated by postpartum hemorrhage or preeclampsia received uterotonics and antihypertensive medications differentially based on the absence or presence of asthma from 2006 to 2015. Given that carboprost and intravenous (IV) labetalol may be associated with asthma exacerbation, adjusted models for receipt of these medications were created with adjusted risk ratios with 95% CIs as measures of effect. Risk for status asthmaticus based on receipt of carboprost and IV labetalol was analyzed. RESULTS: Over the study period, a total of 5,691,178 women were analyzed, of whom 239,915 (4.2%) had preeclampsia and 139,841 postpartum hemorrhage (2.5%). Carboprost was used less frequently in patients with asthma compared with patients with no asthma (11.4% vs 18.0%) in comparison with IV labetalol, which was used more commonly when a diagnosis of asthma was present (18.5% vs 16.7%). In unadjusted analysis, the presence of asthma was associated with a 37% decrease in likelihood of carboprost use and an 11% increase in likelihood of labetalol use. In adjusted analysis, the presence of asthma was associated with a 32% decrease in likelihood of carboprost use (adjusted risk ratio 0.68, 95% CI 0.62-0.74) compared with a 7% decrease in labetalol use (adjusted risk ratio 0.93, 95% CI 0.90-0.97). Risk for status asthmaticus was significantly increased with use of IV labetalol compared with other antihypertensive medications (6.5 vs 1.7/1,000 delivery hospitalizations, P<.01). CONCLUSION: There may be an opportunity to reduce use of ß-blockers and carboprost among patients with asthma. Given their association with status asthmaticus, these drugs should be used cautiously in women with asthma.

Timing and Risk Factors of Postpartum Stroke.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize risk and timing of postpartum stroke readmission after delivery hospitalization discharge. METHODS: The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's Nationwide Readmissions Database for calendar years 2013 and 2014 was used to perform a retrospective cohort study evaluating risk of readmission for stroke within 60 days of discharge from a delivery hospitalization. Risk was characterized as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs based on whether patients had hypertensive diseases of pregnancy (gestational hypertension or preeclampsia), or chronic hypertension, or neither disorder during the index hospitalization. Adjusted models for stroke readmission risk were created. RESULTS: From January 1, 2013, to October 31, 2013, and January 1, 2014, to October 31, 2014, 6,272,136 delivery hospitalizations were included in the analysis. One thousand five hundred five cases of readmission for postpartum stroke were identified. Two hundred fourteen (14.2%) cases of stroke occurred among patients with hypertensive diseases of pregnancy, 66 (4.4%) with chronic hypertension, and 1,225 (81.4%) without hypertension. The majority of stroke readmissions occurred within 10 days of hospital discharge (58.4%), including 53.2% of patients with hypertensive diseases of pregnancy during the index hospitalization, 66.7% with chronic hypertension, and 58.9% with no hypertension. Hypertensive diseases of pregnancy and chronic hypertension were associated with increased risk of stroke readmission compared with no hypertension (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.33-2.27 and OR 1.88, 95% CI 1.19-2.96, respectively). Median times to readmission were 8.9 days for hypertensive diseases of pregnancy, 7.8 days for chronic hypertension, and 8.3 days without either condition. CONCLUSION: Although patients with chronic hypertension and hypertensive diseases of pregnancy are at higher risk of postpartum stroke, they account for a minority of such strokes. The majority of readmissions for postpartum stroke occur within 10 days of discharge; optimal blood pressure management may be particularly important during this period.

Risk of Peripartum Hysterectomy and Center Hysterectomy and Delivery Volume.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize where women at risk for and undergoing peripartum hysterectomy delivered in terms of obstetric volume and procedural experience. METHODS: We used data from the Perspective database to retrospectively evaluate trends in peripartum hysterectomy and deliveries at high risk of peripartum hysterectomy based on placenta previa and prior cesarean delivery delivered from 2006 through 2014. Hospitals were categorized two separate ways for the analysis: 1) into five roughly equal quintiles based on annualized delivery volume and 2) by the mean number of hysterectomies performed annually over the study period. RESULTS: Four thousand eight hundred eleven hysterectomies occurred among 5,388,486 deliveries in 500 hospitals over the study period. The peripartum hysterectomy rate increased from 81.4 per 100,000 deliveries in 2006 to 98.4 in 2014. The prevalence rate of placenta previa in the setting of previous cesarean delivery also increased over the study period. Between 2006-2008 and 2012-2014, peripartum hysterectomy decreased in the lowest delivery volume quintile and increased in the highest delivery volume quintile (-14.9/100,000 deliveries, 95% confidence interval [CI] -25.6 to -4.2 and +35.4/100,000 deliveries, 95% CI 20.3-50.5, respectively). Similarly, hospitals performing high rates of hysterectomies saw the largest increase over the study period. CONCLUSION: With peripartum hysterectomy rates increasing in the population, hospitals with high delivery volumes and high rates of hysterectomies saw the largest increases in peripartum hysterectomy rates. These trends support that improved referral practices and uptake of evidence-based recommendations may be occurring.

National Partnership for Maternal Safety: Consensus Bundle on Venous Thromboembolism.

Obstetric venous thromboembolism is a leading cause of severe maternal morbidity and mortality. Maternal death from thromboembolism is amenable to prevention, and thromboprophylaxis is the most readily implementable means of systematically reducing the maternal death rate. Observational data support the benefit of risk-factor-based prophylaxis in reducing obstetric thromboembolism. This bundle, developed by a multidisciplinary working group and published by the National Partnership for Maternal Safety under the guidance of the Council on Patient Safety in Women's Health Care, supports routine thromboembolism risk assessment for obstetric patients, with appropriate use of pharmacologic and mechanical thromboprophylaxis. Safety bundles outline critical clinical practices that should be implemented in every maternity unit. The safety bundle is organized into four domains: Readiness, Recognition, Response, and Reporting and Systems Learning. Although the bundle components may be adapted to meet the resources available in individual facilities, standardization within an institution is strongly encouraged.