The potential benefit in preventing pelvic floor disorders (PFDs) is a frequently cited reason for requesting or performing cesarean delivery on maternal request (CDMR). However, for primigravid women without medical/obstetric indications, the lifetime cost-effectiveness of CDMR remains unknown, particularly with regard to lifelong pelvic floor consequences. Our objective was to assess the cost-effectiveness of CDMR in comparison to trial of labor (TOL) for primigravid women without medical/obstetric indications with a single childbirth over their lifetime, while explicitly accounting for the management of PFD throughout the lifetime.

We used Monte Carlo simulation of a decision model containing 249 chance events and 101 parameters depicting lifelong maternal and neonatal outcomes in the following domains: actual mode of delivery, emergency hysterectomy, transient maternal morbidity and mortality, perinatal morbidity and mortality, and the lifelong management of PFDs. Parameter estimates were obtained from published literature. The analysis was conducted from a societal perspective. All costs and quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) were discounted to the present value at childbirth.

The estimated mean cost and QALYs were $14,259 (95% confidence interval [CI] $8,964-$24,002) and 58.21 (95% CI 57.43-58.67) for CDMR and $13,283 (95% CI $7,861-$23,829) and 57.87 (95% CI 56.97-58.46) for TOL over the combined lifetime of the mother and the child. Parameters related to PFDs play an important role in determining cost and quality of life.

When a woman without medical/obstetric indications has only one childbirth in her lifetime, cost-effectiveness analysis does not reveal a clearly preferable mode of delivery.

A retrospective study of 46 patients with different types of urogenital fistulae treated by the author during the period from January 1997 to December 2006 is presented. Twenty-two (48%) cases had a vesicovaginal fistula of which 16 (73%) were repaired vaginally and 6 (27%) were repaired abdominally. The remaining fistulae were as follows: 14 (30%) unilateral ureterovaginal fistulae, 6 (13%) ureterovesicovaginal fistulae (one bilateral), and 4 (9%) vesicouterine fistulae. All were repaired abdominally except for one patient with ureterovesicovaginal fistula needing continent urinary diversion using Mainz type II pouch. All fistulae were iatrogenic except one case (2%) which was due to neglected obstructed labor. The iatrogenic causes were gynecologically related in 26 (57%) patients and obstetrically related in 19 (41%) cases. There were two (9%) failed repairs in the vesicovaginal cases, one in each group, and both were salvaged by a secondary surgery. In view of this selected retrospective study and in association with other reports, it seems that with the improvement in the basic health-care services in Egypt, there is a change in the etiology of urogenital fistulae with the vast majority being physician related and no more related to neglected obstructed labor. Such shortcoming should be addressed in the current gynecological surgery training and residency programs.