Is Presence Of Fever A Valuable Predictor In Identifying Pregnant Ladies With Premature Rupture Of Membranes

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of pyrexia among women presenting with premature rupture of membranes.

MATERIAL & METHODS: It was a descriptive (Cross-Sectional) study conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Rehman Medical institute, Peshawar over a period of four years between 1^st Jan 2015 to 31^st Dec 2018.  A total of 546 patients were included using Non-Probability (Consecutive) Sampling technique including women in the reproductive age between 15 and 50 years of age, with single pregnancy and diagnosed with PROM. Mercurial thermometer was used to obtain the core body temperature.

RESULTS: The patients were included in four major groups (Group 1(15 to 19years), Group 2 (20 to 29 years), Group 3 (30 to 39 years) and Group 4 (40 to 55 years). The average age of the patients was 28.62±5.9SD. The highest frequency of fever was observed in group 1 (25%) whereas the least was seen in the group 4 (11.11%). A total of 14.76% of patients in group 2 and 13.86% of patients in group 3 had documented fever with PROM.

CONCLUSION: The presence of fever can be a useful guide in identifying those vulnerable females with PROM but the absence of fever is by no means a surety that treating Obstetrician can ignore the presence of PROM.