Cesarean Section Safe For HIV+ Women.

2001 JUL 12- (NewsRx Network) -- by Michael Greer, senior medical writer - Pregnant women who are HIV positive can undergo cesarean deliveries without exceptional risk, researchers say.

E.J. Rodriguez and colleagues at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, performed a study to "compare the complication rates associated with cesarean delivery between human immunodeficiency virus-seropositive women with those among a matched group of [HIV] seronegative subjects." The results of their research were published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Although complications during cesarean delivery were somewhat more common among infected mothers, the risk of postoperative morbidity was statistically equivalent to that faced by healthy women, Rodriguez and coworkers found.

The researchers examined data from 86 [HIV.sup.+] women who underwent cesarean deliveries between 1992 and 2000, comparing their experiences with those of 86 healthy mothers with similar demographic and medical characteristics. They found no statistically significant differences in the rate of major postoperative complications between the two groups.

Women infected with HIV were significantly more likely to suffer from minor complications after cesarean deliveries, however. More than 66% of infected mothers experienced minor ...