This document discusses obstetric fistula (OF), including its definition, epidemiology, causes, and strategies for prevention and treatment. Some key points: - OF is an abnormal opening caused by prolonged obstructed labor without medical care that causes urine and/or feces to continuously leak. It can be repaired surgically for $300. - An estimated 2 million women live with OF, with 50,000-100,000 new cases annually in sub-Saharan Africa including 5,000 cases estimated in Sudan. - Causes include lack of emergency obstetric care, early marriage and childbirth, female genital mutilation, and poverty. Prevention strategies focus on increasing access to

1. Obstetric Fistula
Geneva Foundation for Medical Education
and Research
GFMER Sudan 2012
Forum No: ( 1 )

2. Name of presenter
Name Position Institution
Mishkat Shehata Junior Doctor Federal Ministry of Health
Name of contributors
Name Position Institution
Hani Ibrahim Research Assistant RCRU

3. Content of the presentation
• What is an Obstetric Fistula?
• Epidemiology
• The burden of living with OF
• Causes
• Local epidemiology in Sudan
• Specialized centres for OF in Sudan
• Long term goals of a national fistula programme
• Development of OF prevention and treatment strategy
• Data collection
• Strategies for prevention
• Monitoring and evaluation of a national fistula programme
• Conclusion
• References

4. What is an Obstetric Fistula?
• Obstetric Fistula (OF) is an abnormal opening
between a woman’s vagina and bladder and/or
rectum, through which her urine and/or faeces
will continually leak
• OF can be surgically corrected by a surgery that
costs no more than $300

5. Epidemiology
• Worldwide, there are 2 million women living
with untreated OF; the incidence being about 2
in every 1000 deliveries in Sub-Saharan Africa (1)
• Between 50 000 and 100 000 women are
annually affected (2)
• In Sudan, an estimate of 5 000 new cases
annually has been made (3)
((Elkins
et al, 1994. Columbia University sponsored Second Meeting of the Working Group for the Prevention and Treatment of
Obstetric Fistula. UNFPA, FIGO, Addis Ababa, 2002. El Sadig et al, 2009)

6. The burden of living with OF
• At the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital, 53% of
women had been abandoned by their spouse
and one in every five said that she had to beg
for food in order to just survive
• Some women crumble, are no longer able to
withstand the pain and suffering of being left
and ostracized from their communities, and
unfortunately resort to suicide (4)(Wall et al, 2001)

7. Causes
Physical causes; mainly prolonged and obstructed
labour, rarely caused by rape, sexual abuse and
unsafe abortion
Lack of emergency obstetric care, which includes
lack of skilled professionals and availability of
facilities. Recent studies done in some African
countries by UNFPA and UNICEF showed that
each country had ONE comprehensive obstetric
facility per 500 000 inhabitants and none had the
necessary quota of facilities for basic emergency
obstetric care (5) (Report of a UNFPA/AMDD meeting, February 2005,
(unpublished), Yaoundé, Cameroon)

8. Early marriage and childbirth; In Ethiopia and
Nigeria, more than 25% of women suffering
from fistula had become pregnant before the
age of 15, and over 50% before the age of 18
(6). Fistula formation is more likely after a first
labour(7)
Harmful traditional practices; such as female
genital mutilation (FGM). 15 percent of fistula
formation in Africa is accountable to harmful
cutting by unskilled birth attendants (8)
Lack of knowledge regarding fistula repair
(Ampofo, 1990. Kelly J, Kwast BE, 1993. Faces of Dignity, 2003, Women’s Dignity Project, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)

9. • Poverty; Two epidemiologic studies of fistula
have found that more than 99% of women
undergoing surgical repair of fistula were
illiterate (9,10). The incidence of OF in sub-
Saharan Africa is estimated to be about 124
cases per 100 000 deliveries in rural areas, in
comparison to almost no cases in major urban
cities (11)
(Tahzob F, 1983. Emembolu J, 1992. Vangeenderhuysen D, 2001)

10. Local epidemiology in Sudan
• OF is a serious problem in Sudan; but the country is home to one of
the few hospitals that specialize in treating and curing fistula: The
Khartoum Teaching Hospital Fistula Centre
• In Sudan, the incidence of obstructed labor (followed by instrumental
delivery) in 1997 to 1999 was 1.27%. Vesicovaginal fistula occurred as
a complication in 1.5% of these cases (12) and 4.8% in another study
(13)
• In one study in Wad Medani, the causes of fistula were obstructed
labor (28%), forceps delivery (14%), Lower segment Caesarean
sections (16%), hysterectomy (24%), other gynecological operations
(12%) and radiation (6%) (Graph 1)(14)
(Dafallah SE, 2003. A Ali, 2010. El Imam M, 2005)

11. Graph 1

12. • Poverty, early marriage, malnutrition and poor health services all seem
to contribute to the obstetric fistula situation in Sudan. Low
socioeconomic status contributed to over 80% of cases in one large
study in 2008 (15)
• However, the majority of these cases married before the age of 18
years. More than half of patients with obstetric fistula in Khartoum
did not attend regular antenatal care, and about 40% delivered at
home. Most cases of obstetric fistula in Sudan come from the
Western regions, including Darfur. In this region, sexual violence
(including rape) is common (16), and this has been shown to be a risk
factor for fistula formation (17)
(Mohammed EY et al, 2009. ACORD – Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development – Unfinished
Business: Transitional Justice and Women’s Rights in Africa. Peterman A, 2009)

13. Specialized centres of OF in Sudan
• In Sudan, there are four specialized fistula hospitals; the most renowned
being Khartoum Teaching Hospital Fistula Center (a.k.a) Dr. Abbo
National Fistula Center
• It was named after Dr. Abbo who opened a small fistula unit in Khartoum in
1972 which was then upgraded into the center in the late '80s
• Dr. Abbo Hassan Abbo established this centre as an extension of Khartoum
Hospital’s Fistula ward in 1989. Currently, the centre sees more than 700
patients per year (18), and is tended to by 5 expert Fistula consultants. The
hospital is a multidisciplinary effort including urologists, rectal surgeons and
urogynaecologists. The centre is the second largest in Africa and the Middle
East, second only to the one in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (19)
• The three other centres exist in Kassala, Elfashir and Zilingi
(Salih A, 2010. Zacharin RF, 2000)

14. Long-term goal of a national fistula
programme
• Prevent women from developing fistula through health promotion and
awareness, and the development of high-quality basic and comprehensive
maternal health services, available to all.
• Ensure that all women living with fistula have easy and early access to skilled
professionals able to repair simple fistula and/or refer more complex cases to
more experienced colleagues.
• Ensure that each girl’s and woman’s right to health, including reproductive
rights, which are closely linked with the prevention of OF, are recognized
and protected by the provision of an enabling policy and regulatory
environment.

15. Development of OF prevention and
treatment strategy
• Setting up a National OF strategy committee as an key part of the national
Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH) strategy committee
• Data collection on the prevalence and incidence of OF in the country.
Identifying any specific local determinants, mapping current preventive and
curative service provision, and undertaking a needs assessment to guide
future policy development
• Development of a policy framework with achievable short-, medium- and
long-term objectives

16. Data Collection
• Mapping existing services provides useful information to
planners and policy- makers by identifying any gaps in services,
equipment and human resources for emergency obstetric care,
as well as fistula services.
• Service Availability Mapping (SAM) is available to help with
this(20) (SAM, WHO, 2004)

17. • Epidemiological:
• Primary data collection (Most data are from hospital services; undervalues
majority of women hidden in community)
• Community-based surveys (qualitative approaches)
• Proxy measures may also be available to estimate the prevalence and burden
(Eg high maternal mortality rates or high rates of uterine rupture)
• Stakeholder Analysis:
• Drawing together the information and opinions of experts in the field,
women and their families who live with fistula or have had fistula treated.
Local providers of services, government, community-based organizations,
NGOs as well as other relevant stakeholders are also involved.

18. • Community or facility based reviews:
• Understanding the underlying causes that lead to fistula formation to help
determine most effective ways to improve local situation
• Community- or facility-based case reviews to identify particular local issues
and provide potential solutions
• Involvement of local health professionals and relevant policy-makers

19. Strategies for prevention
• Primary-prevention: Ensure that pregnancies are planned, wanted, and occur
at an optimal time in the woman’s life.
• Secondary-prevention: Once pregnant, a woman, her family and the
community need to be aware of the need to seek antenatal care, the
importance of skilled care at childbirth, and the signs and symptoms of
possible problems during pregnancy and childbirth
• Tertiary-prevention: Identify and prevent the development of fistula in
labour or in recently delivered high-risk women. Monitoring of labour and
timely intervention when obstructed labour arises; or referral to a
comprehensive emergency obstetric care facility if services are not available
on site

20. Monitoring and evaluation of a national
fistula programme
• Clinical audit and research
• Performance indicators:
• Reproductive health indicators for global monitoring (21) (Reproductive
health indicators for global monitoring. Report of the second Interagency meeting. Geneva,
World Health Organization, 2000)
• Percentage of births attended by skilled health personnel
• Number of facilities with functioning basic essential obstetric care per
500 000 population
• Number of facilities with functioning comprehensive essential
obstetric care per 500 000 population

21. Conclusion
• In Sudan, there are 5 000 new cases every year
• Lack of emergency obstetric care, early marriage, childbirth and harmful
traditional practices and poverty are all contributory factors
• Four specialized fistula hospitals exist in Sudan
• It has been recommended that the emphasis on antenatal care, the training
of midwives and the general improvement of socioeconomic status of
women in Sudan should take priority to help prevent obstetric fistula.
Doctors should also be advised to carefully consider the risks of
instrumental (forceps) delivery, and opt for a Caesarean section in difficult
cases.
• National fistula programmes require accurate data collection, prevention
strategies tailored to local needs and good monitoring and evaluation
• Finally lack of data and information makes it difficult to estimate the true
percentages and distribution of OF in Sudan (mainly in rural conflict and
post conflict areas)

22. References
1. Elkins TE. Surgery for the obstetric vesicovaginal fistula: a
review of 100 operations in 82 patients. Am J Obstet
Gynecol. 1994;170:1108-1120.
2. Columbia University sponsored Second Meeting of the
Working Group for the Prevention and Treatment of
Obstetric Fistula. UNFPA, FIGO, Addis Ababa, 2002.
3. ElsadigYousif Mohamed, MahaFouadAbdallaBoctor, Hyder
Abu Ahmed, HatimSeedahmed, Mohamed Ahmed
Abdelgadir, Sawsan Mustafa Abdalla. Contributing factors
of vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF) among fistula patients in
Dr.Abbo's National Fistula &Urogynecology Centre -
Khartoum 2008. Sudanese Journal of Public Health. April
2009 vol 4(2): 259-264.

23. 4. Wall, LL et al. Urinary incontinence in the developing world: The obstetric
fistula. Proceedings of the Second International Consultation on Urinary
Incontinence, Paris, July 1-3, 2001. Committee on Urinary Incontinence in
the Developing World, pp. 1-67.
5. Report of a UNFPA/AMDD meeting, February 2005, (unpublished),
Yaoundé, Cameroon.
6. Ampofo KE. Risk factors of vesico-vaginal fistula in Maiduguri, Nigeria: A
case- control study. Tropical Doctor, 1990, 20(3):138-139.
7. Kelly J, Kwast BE Epidemiologic study of vesico-vaginal fistula in
Ethiopia. International Urogynecology Journal, 1993, 4:278-281.
8. Faces of Dignity, 2003, Women’s Dignity Project, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
9. Tahzob F. Epidemiological determinants of vesicovaginal fistula. BJOG An
International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 1983, 09(5):387-391.
10. Emembolu J. The obstetric fistula: factors associated with improved
pregnancy outcome after a successful repair. International Journal
Gynecology and Obstetrics, 1992, 39:205-212.

24. 11. Vangeenderhuysen D, Prual A, Ould el Joud, D. Obstetric fistula: Incidence
estimates for sub-Saharan Africa. International Journal of Gynecology and
Obstetrics, 2001, 73:65-66.
12. Dafallah SE, Ambago J, El-agib F. Obstructed labor in a teaching hospital
in Sudan. Saudi Medical Journal 2003; Vol. 24 (10): 1102-1104.
13. A. Ali and I. Adam Maternal and perinatal outcomes of obstructed labour
in Kassala hospital, Sudan. Journal of Obstetrics &Gynecology 2010 30:4,
376-377.
14. El-Imam M, El-Hassan el-HM, Adam I. Vesicovaginal fistula in Sudanese
women. Saudi Med J. 2005 Feb; 26(2):341-2.
15. Mohamed EY et al. Contributing factors of vesico-vaginal fistula (VVF)
among fistula patients in Dr.Abbo's National Fistula &Urogynecology
Centre - Khartoum 2008. Sudanese Journal of Public Health. Vol 4 No 2
(2009).
16. ACORD – Agency for Cooperation and Research in Development –
Unfinished Business: Transitional Justice and Women’s Rights in Africa.

25. 17. Peterman A., Johnson K. Incontinence and trauma: Sexual
violence, female genital cutting and proxy measures of
gynecological fistula (2009) Social Science and Medicine, 68 (5),
pp. 971-979.
18. Salih A and Salih A. The Legend of Dr. Abbo Hassan Abbo.
Sudanese Journal of Public Health. Vol 5 No 2 (2010).
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N Z J Surg. 2000;70:851-854.
20. Service Availability Mapping (SAM) MHI/EIP/GIS/CDS.
Geneva, World Health Organization. 2004.
21. Reproductive health indicators for global monitoring. Report
of the second Interagency meeting. Geneva, World Health
Organization, 2000.