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OBSTETRICAL AND GYNAECOLOGICAL UNIT.
Report by the Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, PROFESSOR W. C. W. NIXON, M.D., B.S. (London), F.R.C.S. (Eng.) L.R.C.P. (Lond.), M.C.O.G.
TSAN YUK HOSPITAL.
Analysis of maternal deaths (15)
Pre-eclampsia 1 Eclampsia 2 Pulmonary embolism 1 Rupture of uterus 3 Puerperal mania (sepsis) 1 Post-partum haemorrhage 4 Polyneuronitis-avitaminosis B. 1 Paralytic ileus following Caesarean section. 1 Intestinal obstruction 1An attempt this year has been made to differentiate between those cases who have had no ante-natal care and those who have attended the ante-natal clinic on more than one occasion during their pregnancy. The former group are considered as Emergency cases and the latter as Booked. Of the 1,539 cases delivered only 62 had received any ante-natal supervision. Some of the patients are admitted "in extremis" either as the result of ante-partum haemorrhage, toxaemia or malnutrition.
A venereal disease out-patient clinic is no longer held since it is highly undesirable that treatment for such a disease should be conducted in a maternity hospital.
The definition of Puerperal Pyrexia as adopted at this hospital is: "A temperature of 100.4° or over, occurring on more than one occasion during the puerperium, while the patient is under observation, not including the first 24 hours."
There were 108 cases of Puerperal Pyrexia. In 17 (15.4%) of them, Streptococcus haemolyticus was cultured from a vaginal swab. It is commonly asserted that the incidence of scarlet fever and streptococcal infections are closely related so that where there is little or no scarlet fever there is similarly less streptococcal infection. The finding of Streptococcus haemolyticus in 15.4% of pyrexial cases is a high incidence and points to the need for...