PRIMARY POSTPARTUM HEMORRHAGE

Objective: It is to compare efficacy of Oral Misoprostol with intravenous oxytocin in the management of primary post partum hemorrhage. Design: Quasi experimental study. Place and Duration of Study: Obstetrics and Gynaecology Unit-I, Bahawal Victoria Hospital, Bahawalpur. From 1st December, 2006 to 1st December, 2007. Patients and Method: The study was conducted on 90 patients who went into post partum hemorrhage during the study period. Cases were divided into two groups each having 45 patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Group ‘A’ had those who received oral misoprostol 600μg and group ‘B’ those who received 5 UNITS intravenous oxytocin. The variables analyzed were failure of drug, time taken to control bleeding and side effects of drugs. Students t-test was used for comparison between means and chi-square test for comparison between percentages. Significance was taken at P<0.05. Results: It was noted that failure rate of oral misoprostol was 11.1% and that of oxytocin was 22.2%. Mean time taken to control bleeding by misoprostol was 16.6 minutes and 1.311 minutes by intravenous oxytocin. Side effects was observed in 35.5% cases of misoprostol group and 2.22% cases of oxytocin group. Conclusion: The time taken to control bleeding and side effect profile is more better in intravenous oxytocin as compared to oral misoprostol in the menagemnt of primary postpartum hemorrhage, but number of patients responded to oral misoprostol are more, so it can be used as in combination of oxytocin where oxytocin alone failed to work.