Premature rupture of the membranes before the 35(th) week: perinatal outcomes

PURPOSE: To describe the perinatal outcomes after preterm premature rupture of membranes. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was carried out at Instituto de Medicina Integral Prof. Fernando Figueira -IMIP from January 2008 to December 2012. A total of 124 preterm premature rupture of membranes singleton pregnancies, with gestational age < 35, were included in the study. Pregnant women carrying fetuses with malformations, hypertensive syndromes, diabetes, or diagnosis of infections at admission were excluded. The pregnant women were hospitalized for conservative treatment with corticosteroids, antibiotics and tocolysis with nifedipine if necessary. The results are reported as frequency distributions and measures of central tendency and dispersion. RESULTS: Seventeen patients (13.7%) had a gestational age of less than 24 weeks. Mean maternal age was 25.7 years, mean gestational age at the diagnosis of preterm premature rupture of membranes was 29 weeks, mean amniotic fluid index was 3.5 cm, and mean latency period was 10.5 days. Most patients went into spontaneous labor by the 30th week of pregnancy, and the rate of vaginal delivery was 88.2%. Chorioamnionitis was the most frequent maternal complication (34.7%). Neonatal sepsis was observed in 12% of patients, and the perinatal mortality rate was 21.5% for the group at or beyond the 24th week of gestation and 76.5% for the group with less than 24 weeks of gestational age. CONCLUSIONS: A low maternal mortality rate was observed in preterm premature rupture of membranes; however, high rates of complications and perinatal death were observed, suggesting that other conduct protocols should be studied.