Vaginal birth after cesarean delivery in twin gestations: A large, nationwide sample of deliveries

Objective

The purpose of this study was to assess the maternal morbidity associated with attempted vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) in twin gestations using a large, nationwide sample of deliveries.

Study design

Data for this study were obtained from an administrative dataset, the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a representative sample of discharges from non-Federal hospitals, for the years 1993 to 2002. Patients admitted nonemergently for the delivery of twin gestations who had a history of previous cesarean delivery were selected. Patients that either delivered vaginally or who had discharge codes that indicated labor before cesarean delivery were defined as the trial of labor group, while patients who had a cesarean delivery without discharge codes that indicated labor were defined as the elective cesarean group. Various complications of delivery were analyzed for each group.

Results

We identified 4705 women who underwent an elective cesarean delivery and 1850 women who underwent a trial of labor. For women who had a trial of labor, 836 (45.2%) delivered vaginally. The rate of uterine rupture was higher in the trial of labor group than in the elective cesarean group (0.9% vs 0.1%, P < .001), and the rate of wound complications was lower (0.6% vs 1.3%, P < .02). The rates of other complications including hysterectomy, transfusion, major postpartum infection, thromboembolism, uterine dehiscence, and pelvic hematoma were not significantly different between the 2 groups.

Conclusion

Our study showed a significantly higher rate of uterine rupture in the trial of labor group that is similar to the rates reported for trial of labor after cesarean in singleton pregnancies.

Key words: VBAC, Twin gestation, Uterine rupture