Uterine artery ligation before placental delivery during caesarean in patients with placenta previa accreta

To investigate the influence of uterine artery ligation before placental delivery during cesarean section on postpartum hemorrhage (PPH) and related complications in patients with placenta previa accreta. A retrospective study was conducted of data from 78 patients with pernicious placenta previa, treated at Fujian Provincial Maternal and Child Health Hospital (Fuzhou, China) between January 2014 and June 2018. Twenty-nine patients underwent uterine arterial ligation before placental delivery (UALBPD), and the other 49 patients in the control group did not undergo peri-paracentesis before the delivery of the placenta. The statistical analysis and data management were performed with SPSS 19.0. The intraoperative and postoperative complications after uterine artery ligation were compared between the 2 groups: in the UALBPD group, no woman (0.0%) underwent a subtotal cesarean hysterectomy, whereas four (8.2%) did so in the control group (P=.24). The mean number of packed red blood cell (RBC) units transfused was 3.7 +/- 1.2 in the UALBPD group and 5.7 +/- 3.4 units in the control group (P=.0002). The estimated blood loss was 734.2 +/- 317.5 mL in the UALBPD group and 1101.6 +/- 442.7 mL in the control group (P<.0001). Nine (31.0%) women in the UALBPD group underwent transfusion compared with 38 (77.6%) in the control group (P=.003). The reduction in hemoglobin was 2.63 +/- 1.85 g/L in the UALBPD group and 5.41 +/- 2.38 g/L in the control group (P<.0001). The reduction in hematocrit was 2.96 +/- 4.07 in the UALBPD group and 6.77 +/- 8.74 (%) in the control group (P=.009). Bilateral uterine artery ligation before the delivery of the placenta in women with placenta accreta can effectively reduce the amount of intraoperative blood loss, the incidence of PPH, and the risk of complications, such as hysterectomy.