Difficulties in the Management of Placenta Accreta Spectrum in Hospitals with Limited Resources.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) is a serious diseases, and the recommendation is that the treatment is conducted in centers of excellence. Such hospitals are not easy to find in low- and middle-income countries. We seek to describe the process of prenatal diagnosis, surgical management, and postnatal histological analysis in a low-income country referral hospital with limited resources. METHODS: A descriptive, retrospective study was carried out including patients with a pre- or intraoperative diagnosis of PAS. The clinical results of the patients were studied as well as the results of the prenatal ultrasound and the correlation with the postnatal pathological diagnosis. RESULTS: In total, 129 patients were included. Forty-eight of them had a prenatal PAS ultrasound diagnosis (37.2%). In the remaining 81 (62.8%), the diagnosis was intraoperative.Although hysterectomy was performed in all cases, one-third of the patients (31%) did not have a histological study of the uterus. In 40% of the patients who had a histological study, PAS was not reported by the pathologist. CONCLUSION: The frequency of prenatal diagnosis and the availability of postnatal histological studies were very low in the studied population. Surgical skill, favored by a high flow of patients, is an important factor to avoid complications in settings with limited resources.