A prospective observational study of maternal outcomes in patients with oligohydramnios
Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: : Amniotic fluid around the fetus serves purposes like normal fetal growth, neuro-musculoskeletal development and is responsible for better fetal outcomes. Oligohydramnios is a decreased amount of amniotic fluid with an amniotic fluid index (AFI) <5 cm. Borderline oligohydramnios is an amniotic fluid index between 5.1 to 8 cm. L-arginine, a semi-essential amino acid used in oligohydramnios, has been suggested to be beneficial in improving the amniotic fluid index. Hence, this study was planned to evaluate maternal outcomes in patients of oligohydramnios who received L-arginine as well as those who came to emergency delivery and were not administered L-arginine. : This was a prospective observational study undertaken in a tertiary care teaching hospital which included 70 patients diagnosed with oligohydramnios from 1st January 2023 to 31st December 2023. Institutional ethics committee permission (PUIECHR/PIMSR/00/081734/5306) was obtained before the data collection. All pregnant women with singleton pregnancies diagnosed with oligohydramnios, satisfying inclusion criteria were included and data was recorded for those who received L-arginine as well as for those patients with oligohydramnios directly coming for delivery and not administered L-arginine. : Out of 70 patients diagnosed with oligohydramnios, 24 patients received L-arginine and 46 patients came directly for delivery and did not receive L-arginine. Out of those receiving L-arginine, the average gestational age of starting L-arginine therapy was 34.6 ± 3.3 weeks while at delivery the gestational age was 35.7 ± 2.9. Hence, there was an increase of 1.1 ± 0.4 weeks of gestational age at an average. The rise in AFI after treatment with L-arginine was 0.1 to 1.9 cm with a mean of 0.475 cm. Our study showed an increase in gestational age as well as an increase in AFI with the administration of L-arginine. A larger sample size and more such studies may help in establishing the beneficial role of L-arginine in oligohydramnios.
Institution: Parul University
Language: English
Subfield: Obstetrics and Gynecology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4407593192