Prevalence of unrepaired third- and fourth-degree tears among women taken to the operating room for repair of presumed obstetric fistula during two fistula camps in Kenya

摘要

Introduction and hypothesis More than 2 million women on earth today are said to be suffering from obstetric fistula (OF), a communication between the vagina and either the urinary tract or rectum. Since unrepaired third- and fourth-degree perineal tears often manifest with symptoms identical to OF, we hypothesized that the global burden of OF is in part due to these unrepaired deep obstetric tears.