TY - JOUR
T1 - Differences in clinical practice regarding screening and treatment of infections associated with spontaneous preterm birth
T2 - An international survey
AU - Werter, Dominique E.
AU - Dehaene, Isabelle
AU - Gurney, Leo
AU - from the International Spontaneous Preterm Birth Young Investigators I-SPY group
AU - Vargas Buján, Mireia
AU - Kazemier, Brenda M.
N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank all respondents for completing the survey. We would also like to thank the I-SPY board for their support with the creation of the survey. We would like to thank Maria Goya and Marta Miserachs Sala for translating and interpreting the Spanish guidelines. Finally, we would like to thank the I-SPY members who sent the survey to their network. DEW: development of questionnaire, data analysing, writing manuscript; ID: critically revising questionnaire, critically revising manuscript; LG: critically revising questionnaire, critically revising manuscript; MVB: critically revising manuscript; BK development of questionnaire, data analysing, critically revising manuscript. Approval by the Ethics Review Board was applied for at the Medical Ethics Review Committee of the Academic Medical Centre. An official approval of this study by the committee was not required (METC review number W21_032). No funding was available. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors
PY - 2021/11/1
Y1 - 2021/11/1
N2 - Objective: An association between infections in pregnancy and increased risk of preterm birth (PTB) is described in the literature. We anticipated that differences may exist in screening and treatment approaches for infections associated with PTB, within and between European countries. The aim of this study was to examine and analyse these differences in clinical practice in greater detail. Study Design: We created a descriptive survey examining the screening and treatment of infections in pregnancy. The survey was sent to European representatives of the International Spontaneous Preterm Birth Young Investigators (I-SPY) group in Europe, who sent it to their network. Finally, we had 50 respondents from ten European countries. Results: We found substantial differences in screening for bacterial vaginosis and asymptomatic bacteriuria, administration of antibiotics to women with preterm prelabour rupture of membranes (PPROM), and timing of induction of labour after PPROM. These differences in clinical practice were present both within, and between countries. Conclusions: Approaches for screening and treatment of infections associated with PTB differ between European countries. There is a lack of robust evidence, which is reflected in a lack of uniformity in international guidelines. International collaboration is paramount to enlarge sample sizes in obstetric studies and to facilitate the process of developing, updating, and implementing consistent guidelines across Europe and beyond.
AB - Objective: An association between infections in pregnancy and increased risk of preterm birth (PTB) is described in the literature. We anticipated that differences may exist in screening and treatment approaches for infections associated with PTB, within and between European countries. The aim of this study was to examine and analyse these differences in clinical practice in greater detail. Study Design: We created a descriptive survey examining the screening and treatment of infections in pregnancy. The survey was sent to European representatives of the International Spontaneous Preterm Birth Young Investigators (I-SPY) group in Europe, who sent it to their network. Finally, we had 50 respondents from ten European countries. Results: We found substantial differences in screening for bacterial vaginosis and asymptomatic bacteriuria, administration of antibiotics to women with preterm prelabour rupture of membranes (PPROM), and timing of induction of labour after PPROM. These differences in clinical practice were present both within, and between countries. Conclusions: Approaches for screening and treatment of infections associated with PTB differ between European countries. There is a lack of robust evidence, which is reflected in a lack of uniformity in international guidelines. International collaboration is paramount to enlarge sample sizes in obstetric studies and to facilitate the process of developing, updating, and implementing consistent guidelines across Europe and beyond.
KW - Evidence based medicine
KW - Guidelines
KW - Infections
KW - Preterm birth
KW - Screening
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115980127&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejogrb.2021.09.009
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejogrb.2021.09.009
M3 - Article
C2 - 34600189
SN - 0301-2115
VL - 266
SP - 83
EP - 88
JO - European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology
JF - European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology
ER -