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OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of having a dedicated obstetric operating room (OR) on the decision-to-delivery interval (DDI) in a large referral hospital in Ghana. METHODS: An observational study was undertaken of all patients undergoing cesarean delivery at Ridge Regional Hospital, Accra, before (pre-OR; August-September 2011) and after (post-OR; August-September 2012) introduction of an obstetric OR. The primary outcome was the DDI. RESULTS: In total, 581 cesareans were performed in the pre-OR period and 574 in the post-OR period. Overall, the median DDI decreased from 259 min (interquartile range IQR 161-432) in the pre-OR period to 195 min (IQR 138-319) in the post-OR period (P<0.001). DDI was lower in the post-OR period than in the pre-OR period for both emergency (175 min IQR 126-241 vs 220 min IQR 146-315; P<0.001) and elective (1828 min IQR 1432-2985 vs 4291 min IQR 2992-5862; P<0.001) cesarean deliveries. Only one emergency cesarean-in the post-OR period-was conducted within the recommended 30-minute timeframe. CONCLUSION: An obstetric OR lowered the DDI for cesarean delivery; however, a realistic timeframe for emergency cesareans in low-income countries remains to be determined.
Onuoha et al. (Sat,) studied this question.