Puerperal Sepsis and its Associated Factors: Review of Cases in a Tertiary Hospital in Jigawa, North-West Nigeria

Background: Puerperal sepsis is the 3rd leading cause of direct maternal death in developing countries. The case fatality rate of puerperal sepsis was reported to be as high as 8%, and it complicates 1-8% of all deliveries. It is an infection of the genital tract occurring anytime between the rupture of membranes and 42nd day postpartum.

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of puerperal sepsis and associated factors.

Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study carried out in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Rasheed Shekoni Federal University Teaching Hospital. The study participants were all the patients managed for puerperal sepsis during the period under review. The patients” data were collected using a structured proforma from their case files. Data obtained was analyzed with IBM SPSS version 21.0. Measured variables were expressed in descriptive statistics; mean ± SD for normally distributed quantitative variables, median and interquartile range for skewed quantitative variables. Qualitative variables were expressed in percentage and proportions.

Results: The prevalence of puerperal sepsis was of 10.7%. The mean age of the patients was 25.85 + 7.5. The mean parity was 3.89 + 4.5. Most (74.71%) of the women were unbooked and had home delivery (69.3%). Fever (90.7%) was the most frequent presenting complaints. The commonest (75.0%) organism cultured was staphylococcus aureus. Anemia was the commonest (63.6%) complication.

Conclusion: The prevalence of Puerperal sepsis in this study is high. Low literacy level, unemployment, un-booked status and home delivery were found to be predisposing factors.