Comparison between near miss criteria in a maternal intensive care unit.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to compare the incidence of different criteria of maternal near miss in women admitted to an obstetric intensive care unit and their sensitivity and specificity in identifying cases that have evolved to morbidity.

METHOD: A cross-sectional analytical epidemiological study was conducted with women admitted to the intensive care unit of the Maternity School Assis Chateaubriand in Ceará, Brazil. The Chi-square test and odds ratio were used.

RESULTS: 560 records were analyzed. The incidence of maternal near miss ranged from 20.7 in the Waterstone criteria to 12.4 in the Geller criteria. The maternal near-miss mortality ratio varied from 4.6:1 to 7.1:1, showing better index in the Waterstone criteria, which encompasses a greater spectrum of severity. The Geller and Mantel criteria, however, presented high sensitivity and low specificity. Except for the Waterstone criteria, there was an association between the three other criteria and maternal death.

CONCLUSION: The high specificity of Geller and Mantel criteria in identifying maternal near miss considering the World Health Organization criteria as a gold standard and a lack of association between the criteria of Waterstone with maternal death.