Doctor: Elsa Lorthe
Title: Premature rupture of the membranes before 33 weeks of amenorrhoea: antenatal management and determinants of the child’s prognosis
Supervisor: Gilles Kayem
Doctoral school:Ecole doctorale Pierre Louis de sante publique à paris, université Pierre et Marie Curie
Date of thesis defense: 11/2017
Jury: Michel Cot, Ronan Garlantézec.
Thesis summary:
Preterm premature rupture of membranes (PPROM) is a complication of pregnancy responsible for significant perinatal mortality and morbidity. Antenatal management aims to reduce adverse consequences, relating to intrauterine inflammation and prematurity, for both mother and child. This thesis aimed to study obstetric determinants impacting the outcome of preterm babies born following PPROM, using data from the EPIPAGE 2 cohort. We first evaluated the impact of latency duration, i.e. the time from PPROM to delivery, on neonatal prognosis. For a given gestational age at birth, latency duration after PPROM at 24-32 weeks’ gestation was not associated with survival or survival without severe morbidity. The principal determinant of neonatal prognosis was gestational age at birth. We then studied tocolysis, a treatment widely used after PPROM to prolong pregnancy. Administration of tocolysis after PPROM was not associated with either improved survival without morbidity of the preterm infant or prolongation of pregnancy. Finally, a descriptive analysis of cases of PPROM occurring at 22-25 weeks’ gestation demonstrated that, at these extreme gestational ages, PPROM was associated with high risks of perinatal mortality and short- and long-term morbidity, with large variations according to gestational age at rupture. Our work provides relevant information for medical teams and pregnant women and questions some obstetric practices, particularly the use of tocolysis after PPROM. They raise issues that will be the subject of future research projects, specifically a randomized controlled trial on tocolysis after PPROM, already funded by PHRC-N 2016 (TOCOPROM trial).
