Abstract

Febrile morbidity after cesarean section is one of the major problems in obstetric practice. This morbidity is most often due to endometritis. Although parenteral prophylactic antibiotics or antibiotic irrigation has been reported to reduce the incidence of endometritis after cesarean section, its incidence remains high. Among the patients who were undergoing cesarean section at Yeungnam University Hospital from the beginning of March, 1985, three group were evaluated in the orders. 1) 30 cases as intrauterine irrigation group with cephradine solution, 2) 35 cases as intravenous injection group with cephradine, 3) 35 cases as control group are neither irrigated nor injected. Febrile morbidity was also evaluated by means of a fever index. The incidence of clinically diagnosed endometritis in the three group were 6.7%, 2.9%, and 22.9%. As these results, two study groups were markedly reduced the incidence of endometritis than control group. There was no significant difference between the intrauterine irrigation with cephradine and control, but significant difference between the intravenous cephradine injection and control (P<0.05). With the results of fever index analysis, both prophylactic intrauterine irrigation and intravenous injection markedly reduce the incidence of endometritis after cesarean section with statistical significance (P<0.05), and also markedly reduce the febrile degree.