ABSTRACT

Aim:

Vaginal delivery is often complicated with perineal tears, mostly in the first and second degree, in severe cases there is damage to the anal sphincter with possible long term morbidity. Risk factors for severe perineal include nulliparity, previous severe perineal tears, macrosomia, prolonged second stage and instrumental deliveries. These risk factors are non-modifiable, the aim of our study was to explore the risk factors and seek for a modifiable risk factor.

Methods:

Our study included all deliveries that took at place in a 1000-bed tertiary teaching hospital between January 2011 and March 2016. A total of of sixty pateints sufferd a severe perineal tear at this time.

Results:

Our main findings included that the common risk factors for severe perineal tears were found in our study population, other important findings include a 39% rate of positive vaginal culture for Candida species, 15% of newborns had a first minute Apgar score

Conclusions:

Severe perineal tears have grave long term morbidity and with many known unmodifiable risk factors. We found an elevated rate of vaginal candida colonization in women with severe perineal tears and believe there may be a possible association.