Caesarean Section rate amongst Obstetricians at a tertiary-care hospital of Karachi

Objective: To analyze the Caesarean Section (CS) rate among different groups of consultants dealing with Nulliparous Term Singleton pregnancy with Vertex (NTSV) presentation delivering at a tertiary care hospital of Karachi over four months.

Methods: This is a secondary analysis of a retrospective data that analyzed factors affecting the CS-rate of NTSV patients. Patients with CS (n=106) were taken as cases and vaginal deliveries (n=106) as controls. This was an unmatched retrospective case-control study.

Results: Mean age of patients was 26.6(SD: 4.2) years. Mean gestational-age was 38.6(SD: 1.0) weeks. Likelihood of CS was slightly less in patients who were attended by feto-maternal consultants(OR:0.81 CI:0.38-1.07) and was slightly more in patients managed by non-full-time faculty (OR:1.04 CI:0.59-1.85). Odds of CS was highest amongst consultants having average monthly volumes of 21-30 patients/month (OR:1.069 CI:0.48-2.34). However none of the above findings were statistically significant. A non-significant increase in risk of CS was observed with increase in experience of physicians (p=0.787).

Conclusion: The results did not show statistically significant difference in CS rate among different groups of Obstetricians. This might indicate that managing labour according to standard guidelines can eliminate physicians’ bias. This can be further evaluated with larger multicenter prospective studies.