Retained Placenta Study: Part I
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Retained Placenta: Factors and outcomes associated with various forms. A retrospective cohort study of women to explore factors and outcomes associated with various forms of retained placenta which occurred at Liverpool Women's Hospital during the period 2009-2014
IRAS ID
171505
Contact name
Andrew Weeks
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The University of Liverpool
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 31 days
Research summary
In the UK, a placenta is considered retained if is not delivered within 30 minutes of active management and 60 minutes of expectant management of the third stage of labour (NICE, 2014). If a retained placenta (RP) is not treated, it may lead to maternal death due to postpartum haemorrhage (blood loss) or sepsis. Currently, its standard treatment is manual removal of placenta. This is associated with anaesthetic and surgical risks compared to medical alternatives. Unfortunately these medical alternatives are not well investigated. This is partly because of current inability to rapidly and accurately diagnose the various forms of retained placenta prior to theatre on the labour ward. This study (The Retained Placenta study) will seek to determine whether the types of RP can be diagnosed prior to surgery and whether the type is important.
Initially it is important to determine whether the three types of retained placenta are distinct clinical entities – do they differ in pathology only, or are the aetiological factors (causes) and outcomes also different? This will be achieved in this phase of the study.Indeed, researchers have described many factors and outcomes associated with the retained placenta; but they are not specified according to its various forms.
Hence, a retrospective cohort study of Liverpool women is proposed to examine the factors and outcomes associated with the various forms of retained placenta from 2009 to 2014. The data for this is already collected at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital from women that delivered there that time and had retained placenta (Study Group) and did not have retained placenta (Control Group). This study is simply to analyse those data.
REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 2
REC reference
15/ES/0069
Date of REC Opinion
29 May 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion