Shoulder dystocia: a comparison of patients with and without diabetes mellitus

Background: The study was aimed to compare pregnancies complicated with shoulder dystocia, of patients with and without diabetes mellitus. Methods: A comparison of all singleton, vertex, term deliveries between the years 1988–1999, complicated with shoulder dystocia with and without diabetes mellitus was performed. Statistical analysis was done using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Results: Using a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, the area under the curve for birth weight was 0.92 (95% CI 0.90–0.93). However, for birth weight of 4,000 g the sensitivity was only 56% with specificity of 95%. While comparing shoulder dystocia between patients with (n=38) and without diabetes mellitus (n=207), neonates of the diabetic patients were significantly heavier (mean birth weight 4,244.2±515.1 vs. 4,051.6±389.5; P=0.008) and had higher rate of Apgar scores lower than 7 at 1 min (50.0% vs. 25.9%; P=0.030), but not at 5 min (2.6% vs. 2.0%; P=0.083) when compared to the non-diabetic group. No significant differences were noted regarding perinatal mortality between the groups (0% vs. 4.3%; P=0.362). Conclusions: The newborn of the diabetic mother complicated with shoulder dystocia does not appear to be at an increased risk for perinatal morbidity compared with the newborn of the non-diabetic mother. Presented in part at the Society for Gynecologic Investigation 50th Annual Scientific Meeting, Washington, DC, 27–30 March 2003.