Intrauterine balloon tamponade for the control of postpartum haemorrhage

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of balloon temponade in the management of postpartum haemorrhage. Methods: The study was conducted at the Dow University of Health Sciences and Civil Hospital Karachi from January to July 18, 2012, and comprised women aged 18-35 years, parity 1-6 and gestational age 31-41 weeks, who developed or were admitted with primary postpartum haemorrhage due to uterine atony in whom medical treatment had failed. SPSS 10 was used to analyse the data. Results: The mean age, parity, gestational age of 139 women was 26.4 +/- 4.2 years, 3.4 +/- 1.3, 37.81 +/- 1.67 respectively. Mean estimated blood loss was 1155.8 +/- 350.6 ml, mean systolic blood pressure 90.96 +/- 18.1 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure 55 +/- 7.5 mmHg and mean pulse was 108.3 +/- 10.89 bpm. Balloon tamponade was effective in 126(90.4%) cases. Conclusion: Condom catheter balloon tamponade was an effective means of controlling postpartum haemorrhage. There should be a low threshold for use of balloon tamponade as it is effective, easy to use, easily available, has low complication rate, and an inexpensive modality to manage non-traumatic postpartum haemorrhage, especially in resource-limited settings, and still maintain reproductive ability.