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.