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Aloysius Gonzaga Mubuuke, Elsie Kiguli-Malwadde, Francis Businge, Rosemary Kusaba Byanyima. Utilisation of obstetric sonography at a peri-urban health centre in Uganda. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2010;7:24 Key words: Obstetric, sonography, Uganda, ultrasound Permanent link: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/7/24/full Received: 22/10/2010 - Accepted: 27/12/2010 - Published: 28/12/2010 © Aloysius Gonzaga Mubuuke et al. The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Utilisation of obstetric sonography at a peri-urban health centre in Uganda
Aloysius Gonzaga Mubuuke1,&, Elsie Kiguli-Malwadde1, Francis Businge1, Rosemary Kusaba Byanyima2
1Radiology department, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda, 2Radiology department, Mulago National Referral Hospital, Uganda
&Corresponding Author
Radiology department, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7072, Tel: +256772616788, Kampala, Uganda
Background
Maternal mortality is related to obstetric complications in pregnancy some of which could be revealed by obstetric sonography. Obstetric sonography has become part of routine antenatal care in both urban and rural settings. The objective of the study was to assess the utilization of obstetric sonography in a rural hospital of Uganda, including the frequency and appropriateness of its usage as well as determine whether there was any relation between number of obstetric scans, patient management and obstetric outcomes.
Methods
It was a retrospective study in which review of all obstetric charts and obstetric scan requisition forms for all deliveries in Ndejje Health Centre (Uganda) was done.
Results
During the study period, there were 105 singleton deliveries, and these mothers underwent a total of 232 obstetric scans. More than half (53.4%) of the scans were classified as inappropriate. There were no significant differences in the number of scans between low- and high-risk pregnancies or between uncomplicated deliveries and those in which induction or instrumental or operative delivery occurred, nor was there any relation between number of scans and obstetric outcome.
Conclusion
Obstetric sonography has become popular in rural health settings as part of antenatal care. However, it was over-used in the health centre. This overuse was not associated with any identifiable effect on obstetric outcome. Therefore, more appropriate use of obstetric sonography, in accordance with evidence-based guidelines, is recommended.
