Iram Mobusher.
Impact of glyceryl trinitrate transdermal patch on mother and foetus in preterm labour.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;6(1):121-3.

Objective: To determine impact of Glyceryl Trinitrate Transdermal Patch on mother and foetus in preterm labour. Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted at the Gynae Unit-I of Lady Willingdon Hospital Lahore,from July 2009 to Junes 2010. 113 pregnant women at 28-34 weeks of gestation were recruited after they met the selection criteria based on non-probability consecutive sampling. 103 patients continued with trial while 10 patients didnot follow up. Patients diagnosed with pre-term labour were given glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) 5 mg/12 hours transdermal patch which was applied on the anterior abdominal wall. The second patch of same dose was applied after 12 hours. The outcome measures were side effects observed in mother, babies born alive, birth weight of babies and apgar score. Results: All the (100%) babies were born alive. Birth weight of more than 2.4kg was noted in 25 (24.3%) babies, while 55 (51.4%) were born with birth weight between 2.2 to 2.4kg. Twelve (14.6%) babies had weight of 1.9kg to 2.1kg and only 11(10.67%) had weight of less than 1.8kg. In the last group ten babies were born within 24 hours of the start of tocolytic, and died in their first week of life due to the refusal of the parents to stay in the neonatology ward for long enough and left against medical advice. Babies born with good apgar score were 82 (79.6%) The most common side effect noticed among the mothers was headache (11.3%) followed by hypotension (5.1%), dizziness (4.1%), flushing (4.1%) vomiting (3%) and irritation (0%) at patch site. Conclusion: Glyceryl Trinitrate transdermal Patch is a safe tocolytic as not associated with adverse effects in mother and foetus.

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