Baseline Characteristics of Patients with Ectopic Pregnancy in Emergency Department; a Cross-sectional Study

Ectopic pregnancy is one of the important obstetric emergencies. Rapid diagnosis, correct triage, and referral of ectopic pregnancy cases can be effective in prevention of mortality in these patients to a great extent. Therefore, the present study was designed to evaluate the baseline characteristics of the patients presenting to emergency department (ED) with final diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy.
In this cross-sectional study, all the patients with the final diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy presenting to ED during a 5-year period, from October 2011 to September 2016, who were hospitalized in the obstetrics department of Shahid Rajaii Hospital, Tonekabon, were evaluated regarding their baseline characteristics. Data were gathered by referring to the patients’ medical profile and then analyzed and reported using SPSS 21 software and descriptive statistics.
140 patients with the mean age of 30.77 ± 5.94 (16-45) years were evaluated (10% with a positive history). Only 26 (18.6%) had reported irregular period in the past month. The most common pregnancy prevention methods used in this group of patients were natural in 123 cases (87.9%), pills in 6 cases (4.3%), condoms in 6 cases (4.3%), and tubectomy in 3 cases (2.1%). Only 3 (2.1%) patients had unstable vital signs on admission. The most common complaints of the patients on admission were abdominal pain with 136 cases (97.1%) and vaginal bleeding with 81 (57.9%). The most common finding in clinical examination was abdominal tenderness in 99 (70.7%) patients. Average time interval between presenting to ED and final diagnosis was 16.24 ± 17.03 hours (0-96). 51 (36.4%) patients needed blood transfusion in the end. On average, patients were hospitalized for 3.44 ± 1.50 days (1-10). All the patients were discharged from the hospital and no case of mortality was reported.
Based on the findings of the present study, the most common complaints of patients with ectopic pregnancy on presentation to ED were abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding. Irregular period was reported in less than 19% of the patients and 97.9% had presented with stable hemodynamics. 67% of the participants needed laparotomy in the end and no case of mortality was reported in this series of patients.