Rectally administrated misoprostol as an alternative to intravenous oxytocin infusion for preventing post-partum hemorrhage after cesarean delivery

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Oxytocin in this randomized controlled trial publication.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 192 women were involved.

PubMed indexes the participants as young adults and adults, women only.

A randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind prospective trial was undertaken on 192 women who did not have risk factors for PPH and who had an uneventful emergency CD under spinal anesthesia.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Oxytocin study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

As a double-blind Oxytocin study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Oxytocin could be set against what happens without it.

Primary outcome measures were the amount of postoperative (24 h) blood loss and incidence of PPH during the postoperative period.

The secondary outcome measures were the postoperative drop in hemoglobin concentration after 24 h, need for additional uterotonic and blood transfusion, and side-effects/complications during the 24-h observation period.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Administration, Rectal, Cesarean Section, Cohort Studies, Emergency Medical Services, Hospitals, Teaching, Incidence and India.

Author keywords: cesarean delivery, misoprostol, oxytocin, post-partum hemorrhage and uterotonic.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin in 192 women.

Results are reported in around 3 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2014 (The journal of obstetrics and gynaecology research), a journal based in Australia.

More context: the Oxytocin compound page, all human trials.