The Association of Decision-to-Incision Time for Cesarean Delivery with Maternal and Neonatal Outcomes

Objective The objective of this study was to estimate whether the decision-to-incision (DTI) time for cesarean delivery (CD) is associated with differences in maternal and neonatal outcomes. Methods This analysis is of data from women at 25 U.S. medical centers with a term, singleton, cephalic nonanomalous gestation and no prior CD, who underwent an intrapartum CD. Perinatal and maternal outcomes associated with DTI intervals of15, 16 to 30, and>30 minutes were compared. Results Among 3,482 eligible women, median DTI times were 46 and 27 minutes for arrest and fetal indications for CD, respectively ( p <0.01). Women with a fetal indication whose DTI interval was>30 minutes had similar odds to the referent group (DTI of 16-30 minutes) for the adverse neonatal and maternal composites (odds ratio [OR]: 0.83, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.40-1.71 and OR: 0.89, 95% CI: 0.63-1.27). For arrest disorders, the odds of the adverse neonatal composite were lower among women with a DTI of>30 minutes (OR: 0.25, 95% CI: 0.08-0.77), and the adverse maternal composite was no different (OR: 1.15, 95% CI: 0.81-1.63). Conclusion In this analysis, DTI times longer than 30 minutes were not associated with worse maternal or neonatal outcomes.