A cheap and widely available drug could save the lives of 1 in 3 of the 100,000 new mothers who bleed to death after childbirth every year, mostly in poorer countries, according to the first study of its use in postpartum hemorrhage. 'It's safe, affordable and easy to administer, and we hope that doctors will use it as early as possible following the onset of severe bleeding after childbirth.' A trial involving 20,000 women in 193 hospitals across 21 countries - mainly in Africa and Asia - found that a widely available drug called tranexamic acid (TXA) could help save lives. Postpartum hemorrhage, in which women bleed uncontrollably after childbirth, kills an estimated 100,000 women a year in poor and middle-income countries. The study involved mothers from 193 hospitals in 21 countries, mainly in Africa and Asia but also in Britain and elsewhere, who suffered postpartum hemorrhage, the leading cause of maternal death worldwide. “It’s safe, affordable and easy to administer, and we hope that doctors will use it as early as possible following the onset of severe bleeding after childbirth,” said Haleema Shakur, an associate professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who co-led the trial. In analyzing the outcomes of the women, the research team, co-led by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine's Ian Roberts, found that the risk of death from bleeding was reduced by 20 percent for the women who got tranexamic compared with those who got nothing. "The need for an operation where you explore why a woman is bleeding can be reduced by a third and there are no side effects. The study, conducted in 193 hospitals in 21 countries, involved 20,000 women who were undergoing one of the most life-threatening medical complications: postpartum hemorrhage. The main drawback, Roberts said, is that many women in the developing world give birth in remote areas assisted only by a midwife or someone else who may not be trained to give an IV injection.
Results, published in The Lancet medical journal, of the WOMAN (World Maternal Antifibrinolytic) international study that began in 2010, finds use of a cheap and widely available drug, tranexamic acid (Lysteda in the U.S. and Australia), could save the lives of thousands of women who die in childbirth from excessive bleeding. The medication is already in use for blood loss from major trauma, surgery, tooth removal, nose bleeds, and heavy menstruation.