Success rate and influencing factors of external cephalic version for singleton pregnancies in the third trimester

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the factors associated with the success rate of external cephalic version (ECV) for singleton and non-cephalic presentation pregnancies in the third trimester. Methods: A retrospective study of ECV among singleton and non-cephalic presentation pregnant women in 36-40 weeks of gestation at Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from January 2016 to June 2018 was analyzed. Results: (1) Totally, 251 cases of 358 pregnant women who underwent ECV were successful, with a total success rate of 70.1% (251/358). The success rate of multipara was 79.1% (129/163), while 62.6% (122/195) in primipara (P<0.01). The total vaginal delivery rate was 52.2% (187/358), the vaginal delivery rate of multipara was 61.3% (100/163), while 44.6% (87/195) in primipara (P<0.01). (2) Spontaneous reversion occurred in 7.6%(19/251) of ECV successful women, the rate of reversion of multipara was 10.9% (14/129), higher than that of the primipara [4.1% (5/122); P<0.01]. (3) Among the 232 pregnant women who did not reverted after successful ECV, 187 cases of successful vaginal delivery, the vaginal delivery rate was 80.6% (187/232); the vaginal delivery rate of the multipara was 87.0%(100/115), which was higher than that of the primipara [74.4%(87/117); P<0.01]. (4) The variables significantly associated with ECV success were parity, type of breech, whether fetal presentation was in pelvic or not (all P<0.05). The complication rate was 2.2% (8/358), among which the incidence of fetal distress, placental abruption and transient fetal heart abnormalities were 0.6% (2/358), 0.3% (1/358) and 1.4% (5/358) respectively. Conclusion: By close monitoring, ECV is a safe and effective procedure in selected appropriate cases, and worthy of clinical application.