Caracterización del parto pretérmino en la Isla de la Juventud, 2007-2009

A descriptive retrospective study was carried out to identify the characteristics of preterm delivery in Youth Island during the triennium 2007-2009. A total of 148 cases were examined, based on a review of the Registry of Deliveries and individual and obstetric case histories, as well as the newborns' case histories. The most frequent maternal characteristics were age less than 24 years (55%), a history of two abortions (38%) and/or a previous childbirth (46%), delivery at 34.0 to 36.6 weeks' gestational age (71%), and birthweight of more than 2000 grams (69% of the neonates). The most frequent obstetric complications were vaginal discharge syndrome (77%), urinary tract infection (53%), premature rupture of membranes (23%) and hypertension (22%). Labor was spontaneous in 64% of the patients and only 49% of the preterm deliveries occurred through the vaginal route. Two-thirds of preterm deliveries started spontaneously and almost half occurred through the vaginal route. The most frequent complications in preterm neonates were respiratory distress syndrome (26%) and sepsis (18%). Only 5.4% of all preterm neonates died.