Gregoriades T, Athanasiou S, Zisou A, Sotiropoulou M, Antsaklis A
1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Athens, Alexandra hospital, Athens, Greece
Correspondence: Athanasiou S, 1st Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Athens, Alexandra hospital, GR-11528 Athens, Greece
Abstract
To assess current practices regarding episiotomy and the repair of obstetric perineal injuries among Greek obstetricians and gynecologists and to identify any relative training deficiencies, a questionnaire was sent to obstetricians and gynecologists practicing in the Athens area. 121 out of 130 questionnaires were completed. An episiotomy was always performed by 50% of the doctors during a vaginal delivery of a primiparous woman. The type of episiotomy mostly prefered was the left lateral or mediolateral (70%). The majority (71%) performed a digital rectal examination only after the repair, whereas only 8% before and after the repair. Regarding the repair of anal sphincter injuries, 76% of the doctors used rapidly absorbable sutures. Following an anal sphincter injury almost half of the doctors (45%) would allow a subsequent vaginal delivery. There was a great variation regarding the repair techniques of all obstetric perineal injuries. The heterogeneity of practices regarding the episiotomy and the repair of obstetric perineal injuries demonstrates the need to adopt unified evidence based guidelines in parallel with the most up to date international scientific data.
Keywords: episiotomy, repair of obstetric perineal injuries, current practices
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