Intrauterine balloon tamponade for the control of postpartum haemorrhage

Objective: to evaluate the effectiveness of balloon temponade in the management of postpartum haemorrhage. methods: the study was conducted at the dow university of health sciences and civil hospital karachi from january to july 18,2012,and comprised women aged 18-35 years,parity 1-6 and gestational age 31-41 weeks,who developed or were admitted with primary postpartum haemorrhage due to uterine atony in whom medical treatment had failed. spss 10 was used to analyse the data. results: the mean age,parity,gestational age of 139 women was 26.4±4.2 years,3.4±1.3,37.81±1.67 respectively. mean estimated blood loss was 1155.8±350.6 ml,mean systolic blood pressure 90.96±18.1 mmhg,diastolic blood pressure 55±7.5 mmhg and mean pulse was 108.3±10.89 bpm. balloon tamponade was effective in 126(90.4%) cases. conclusion: condom catheter balloon tamponade was an effective means of controlling postpartum haemorrhage. there should be a low threshold for use of balloon tamponade as it is effective,easy to use,easily available,has low complication rate,and an inexpensive modality to manage non-traumatic postpartum haemorrhage,especially in resource-limited settings,and still maintain reproductive ability. © 2016,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.