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Background: Conflict is known to impact maternal and neonatal health in Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), an area of longstanding insecurity. We conducted a systematic review on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in this region to provide a comprehensive overview of maternal and neonatal outcomes over a 20-year period.
Methods: We systematically searched databases, such as Medline, EMBASE, Global Health, ClinicalTrials.gov and the Cochrane Library, along with grey literature, for articles published between 2001 and 2021. These articles provided quantitative data on selected pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in the provinces of Ituri, Maniema and North and South Kivu, Eastern DRC. We conducted a descriptive analysis, combining results from different data sources and comparing incidence of outcomes in North Kivu with those in other provinces in Eastern DRC.
Results: A total of 1,065 abstracts from peer-reviewed publications and 196 articles from the grey literature were screened, resulting in the inclusion of 14 scientific articles in the review. The most frequently reported pregnancy complications were caesarean sections (11.6%-48.3% of deliveries) and miscarriage (1.2%-30.0% of deliveries). The most common neonatal outcomes were low birth weight (3.8%-21.9% of live births), preterm birth (0.9%-74.0%) and neonatal death (0.2%-43.3%).
Conclusion: Our review provides data on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes in Eastern DRC, which will be valuable for future studies. Despite the area's ongoing armed conflict, the percentages of complications we noted in Eastern DRC are comparable with those observed in other countries in the region.
Systematic Review Registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=262553, PROSPERO (CRD42021262553).
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgwh.2024.1412403 | DOI Listing |
JMIR Res Protoc
September 2025
Institute of Higher Education and Research in Healthcare, Faculty of Biology and Medicine, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Background: In pediatric intensive care units, pain, sedation, delirium, and iatrogenic withdrawal syndrome (IWS) must be managed as interrelated conditions. Although clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) exist, new evidence needs to be incorporated, gaps in recommendations addressed, and recommendations adapted to the European context.
Objective: This protocol describes the development of the first patient- and family-informed European guideline for managing pain, sedation, delirium, and IWS by the European Society of Paediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care.
JAMA Pediatr
September 2025
Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Importance: Neonatal intensive care has advanced over recent decades, yet premature birth remains associated with increased neonatal mortality and morbidity.
Objective: To describe health service use, morbidity, and medication needs up to age 5 years in a contemporary cohort of children born preterm.
Design, Setting, And Participants: This population-based cohort study was conducted in British Columbia (BC), Canada, using health service and pharmacy data linked using provincial administrative databases.
JAMA Pediatr
September 2025
Department of Health Policy and Management, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.
Importance: For the first time in nearly 2 decades, the US infant mortality rate has increased, coinciding with a rise in overdose-related deaths as a leading cause of pregnancy-associated mortality in some states. Prematurity and low birth weight-often linked to opioid use in pregnancy-are major contributors.
Objective: To assess the health and economic impact of perinatal opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment on maternal and postpartum health, infant health in the first year of life, and infant long-term health.
JAMA Netw Open
September 2025
Department of Epidemiology, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health, Houston.
Importance: Trisomy 13 (T13) and trisomy 18 (T18) are chromosomal abnormalities with high mortality rates in the first year of life. Understanding differences in long-term survival between children with full vs mosaic or partial trisomy is crucial for prognosis and health care planning.
Objective: To examine the differences in 10-year survival between children with full T13 and T18 vs those with mosaic or partial trisomy.
Pediatr Surg Int
September 2025
Department of Pediatric Surgery, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Purpose: The timing of elective surgery for asymptomatic congenital pulmonary airway malformation (CPAM) at birth remains controversial. We aimed to describe characteristics and outcomes of patients who underwent surgery for CPAM.
Methods: We retrospectively identified patients aged < 18 years who were hospitalized for CPAM during the neonatal period and underwent surgery between July 2010 and March 2022 using the Diagnosis Procedure Combination database in Japan.