Large retroperitoneal hematoma following vaginal delivery: a case report
Maroyi, Raha, Ngeleza, Nyakio, Kalunga, Kiminyi, Buhendwa, Cikwanine, Shahid, Usama, Boij, Roland, and Mukwege, Denis (2021) Large retroperitoneal hematoma following vaginal delivery: a case report. Journal of Medical Case Reports, 15 (1). 290.
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Abstract
Background: Retroperitoneal hematoma after vaginal delivery is rare but can lead to maternal morbidity and mortality. Diagnosis of this condition is challenging due to its complexity and its nonspecific signs and symptoms. To date, studies and case reports regarding retroperitoneal hematoma are few, particularly in low-income countries where risk factors for this condition may be more prevalent and the prognosis poorer.
Case presentation: We report the case of a 37-year-old multiparous african (Congolese) woman who presented to the emergency department of a large referral hospital in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), 2 weeks after a spontaneous nontraumatic vaginal delivery. She had abdominal pain that began immediately after delivery and progressed throughout the postpartum period. The patient had anemia, hypotension, tachycardia, and a left costo-lumbar arch distorting the body shape on a soft and depressed abdomen. She had visited a private clinic on days 3 and 7 postpartum; however, signs and symptoms of retroperitoneal hematoma went unrecognized. Using abdominal ultrasound, we diagnosed an extensive hematoma in the retroperitoneal space from the left iliac fossa to the left flank. Laparotomy was performed to evacuate the hematoma, and the patient recovered.
Conclusion: Retroperitoneal hematoma following a nontraumatic vaginal delivery is an unusual situation in general obstetrical practice. The knowledge of this potentially life-threatening condition in resource-limited settings enables effective diagnosis and management by ultrasound and laparotomy.
Item ID: | 69979 |
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Item Type: | Article (Case Study) |
ISSN: | 1752-1947 |
Keywords: | Delayed diagnosis, Low-income countries, Postpartum, Retroperitoneal hematoma, Spontaneous vaginal delivery |
Copyright Information: | © The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
Date Deposited: | 26 May 2022 00:57 |
FoR Codes: | 32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES > 3215 Reproductive medicine > 321502 Obstetrics and gynaecology @ 100% |
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