Comorbidities among women with pelvic organ prolapse

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Comorbidities are a source of worry in women with pelvic organ prolapse. With increasing age, incidence of other medical conditions tends to increase hence it is not surprising to find comorbidities in women with pelvic organ prolapse.
OBJECTIVE: To document the comorbidities among women with pelvic organ prolapse.

METHODS: This retrospective study was conducted at the National Obstetric Fistula Centre, Abakaliki South-East Nigeria. This study involved the review of medical records of women with uterovaginal prolapse between June 2012 and May 2017. The data of 1168 women were available for review.

RESULTS: The mean age was 49.76 ± 13.57 years. Comorbidities occurred in 250 (21.4%) of the cases reviewed. The comorbidities commonly encountered were hypertension in 139 (11.9%), obesity in 56 (4.8%), peptic ulcer disease in 17 (1.5%) and diabetes mellitus in 16 (1.4%). Others were anaemia and human immunodeficiency virus infection. Sixty-three women (5.4%) experienced a delay in surgery as a result of these comorbidities.

CONCLUSION: The comorbidities encountered in this study were obesity, hypertension, diabetes, anaemia, peptic ulcer disease and human immunodeficiency virus infection. There is need to adequately manage these comorbid conditions so as to prevent adverse surgical outcome.