Comparative study between the effect of Carbetocin and Oxytocin in prevention of postpartum hemorrhage following vaginal delivery in high-risk women

Background: The most common cause of maternal death in nations with low per capita income is postpartum hemorrhage, which often causes serious morbidity and impairment for mothers. Despite oxytocin's short half-life and duration of effect, it is still the gold standard for postpartum hemorrhage prevention.Objective: When it came to avoiding postpartum hemorrhage in high-risk women who gave birth vaginally, we compared carbetocin with oxytocin for safety and efficacy.Methods: This random cross-sectional prospective comparative study was conducted at the Obstetrics Unit of El-Hussain University Hospital, Cairo, Egypt, from February 2023 to February 2024 on 100 patients. These women were classified randomly into 2 groups (50 women for each group).Results: Compared to the carbetocin group, which lost 332.8 ml of blood, the oxytocin group lost 396.0 ml of blood (P=0.007). Uterotonic agent and uterine massage were found to be needed in (26.0%, 34.0%) of the carbetocin group and in (46.0%, 54.0%) of the oxytocin group, in a statistically significant manner (P=0.037 and 0.044, respectively) between the two categories under investigation. The oxytocin group had a substantially higher prepartum systolic pressure (116.6) compared to the carbetocin group (114.5), with a p-value of less than 0.001.Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, carbetocin, not oxytocin, could be a uterotonic drug with great therapeutic potential and low hemodynamic effect. The effects of carbetocin on uterine contraction, blood loss, and hemodynamic stability appear to be greater after a single dose than those of oxytocin.