Intensive care stay
The characteristics of the women with a pregnancy associated GAS,
transferred to the ICU compared to women hospitalized in the maternity
department are presented in Table 3. The groups were similar with regard
to age, body mass index, and mode of delivery. The rate of women who
presented with tachycardia (>100 bpm) was higher among the
ICU group (50% vs 17.7%, P = 0.02). The rate of women who
showed abnormal signs/symptoms less than 48 h after delivery was higher
among women admitted to the ICU (61% vs 28%, P = 0.02). The
rate of women who were first started on antibiotic treatment more than
24 hours from presentation was also higher among those in the ICU group
(98% vs 38.4% P < 0.001). Six of the women who had
been transferred to the ICU also received intravenous immunoglobulin.
Exploratory laparoscopy or laparotomy was performed in six cases in
which the patient had failed to recover following antibiotics and
supportive treatment in the ICU. The average length of hospitalisation
in the ICU was 18 days (range 8–54 days). There were no cases of
maternal deaths and no cases of documented neonatal GAS infection.