Background: The aim of this research was to study the maternal and prenatal complications which may occur in the abruptio placentae and in placenta praevia.

Methods: All the patients who were hospitalized in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department of the Policlinico Umberto I, from January 1993 to July 2000 have been studied. Moreover, a comparative study between the onset of complications of the two pathologies considered and the ones found in a control group was carried out. We found 62 cases of placenta previa and 48 cases of abruptio placentae. The total amount of childbirths was 6861, so the incidence of abruptio placentae was 0.007%, while the incidence of placenta previa was 0.009%.

Results: The results show that the most frequent maternal complication, in both pathologies, was haemorrhage. We did not find any statistically meaningful difference between the percentage of haemorrhage in the two pathologies ( p=0.0608), but we noted a higher percentage of haemorrhage compared to the control group. The number of hysterectomies was higher in patients with placenta previa compared to patients with abruptio placentae. The most frequent fetal complication was premature birth, significantly more frequent than in the control population (p=0.0210).

Conclusions: As a matter of fact, we can affirm that, in all its clinical manifestations abruptio placentae is a more dangerous disease than the placenta previa, except in the complications of the discharge of the afterbirth and of the postpartum, where haemorrhage and uterus atony lead to a great number of hysterectomies.