The febrile morbidity score as a predictor of febrile morbidity following cesarean section.
The study comprised 150 women delivered by cesarean section. Each patient was given a score of 0, 1 or 2 for each of the following risk factors; parity, body weight, hemoglobin level, duration of labor and duration of rupture of membranes. No antibiotics were given before, during or after the operation. Postoperatively, the cases were observed for the occurrence of febrile morbidity. It was found that out of the 150 cases, 60 (40%) developed febrile morbidity. The minimal threshold score of these patients was found to be 5. No case in the afebrile group (90 cases) had this score. Also, the mean febrile morbidity score (FMS) of the morbid cases was 6.37 +/- 0.87 compared with 3.16 +/- 0.78 among the nonmorbid cases (P less than 0.001). The febrile morbidity score is valuable in predicting the occurrence of febrile morbidity following cesarean section.