How should we diagnose and assess the severity of PPH in clinical trials?

Abstract

Interventions for prevention and treatment of postpartum haemorrhage have been the subject of numerous clinical trials. However, there is substantial heterogeneity in the outcomes reported by trialists, making the evidence difficult to interpret and compare across studies. Recommendations for clinical practice can be robust only if they are based on good-quality evidence, where therapeutic options are compared using indicators that are standardised, important and meaningful measures of wellbeing. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the challenges in selecting outcome measures for postpartum haemorrhage trials, to describe the current state of outcomes reporting in this area and to make recommendations for clinical trials evaluating interventions for prevention and treatment of postpartum haemorrhage, based on the recently developed Core Outcome Sets.

Keywords: COS; Core outcome set; Diagnosis; Outcome; PPH; Postpartum haemorrhage.