Failure to recognise ectopic pregnancy causing women’s deaths, says expert
Women are dying or suffering avoidable harm because of a failure to recognise ectopic pregnancy, one of the country’s leading experts on maternal health has said.
Speaking to the Guardian, Prof Marian Knight of the University of Oxford, who leads a national research programme on maternal deaths, called for action to improve diagnosis of the acute, life-threatening condition, in which a fertilised egg implants itself outside the womb, normally in the fallopian tube. Ectopic pregnancies are never viable and if left untreated can result in the tube rupturing, causing potentially fatal internal bleeding.
“We could prevent more women from dying from ectopic pregnancy because of lacking of basic recognition and management of the condition,” said Knight.
The warning comes as new data obtained by freedom of information request suggests that dozens of women have experienced “severe harm” after being admitted to hospital with ectopic pregnancies in the past five years.
The Mbrrace report, published last year, said eight women died from ectopic pregnancies between 2018 and 2020, all but one of whom had received suboptimal treatment. In three instances, better care might have saved their lives, the report concluded.
“There’s no doubt that in the [maternal deaths] inquiry we are still seeing the same messages of ectopic pregnancy not being recognised,” said Knight. “That people either don’t pick up on the fact that they’re pregnant or get single-minded about one diagnosis.”
Source: The Guardian, 1 May 2023