{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T17:06:23Z","timestamp":1785431183728,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"AOSIS","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,25]],"date-time":"2025-02-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1740441600000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":[],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background:\u00a0Vaginal bleeding in early pregnancy (VBIEP) affects between 15% and 25% of all pregnancies worldwide and it portends life-threatening gynaecological emergencies. One of the core functions of an emergency medicine physician is to recognise critical illness and institute high-quality emergency care. This study aimed to describe the demographics, clinical presentation, management and outcomes of patients with VBIEP presenting to the emergency department (ED).\n\nMethods:\u00a0Retrospective descriptive data were collected on all patients presenting to the ED of General Justice Gizenga Mpanza Regional Hospital (GJGMRH) with VBIEP between 01 January 2022 and 30 April 2022.\n\nResults:\u00a0The most affected group comprised multiparous women, in the first trimester of pregnancy between the ages of 25 and 29 year. Among HIV-positive participants majority (40.9%) were aged 35\u201339 years of age. Majority (87%) of patients had received no prior antenatal care. Incomplete miscarriage was the most (46.1%) common diagnosis made in the ED. Most (61.7%) patients from the ED required admission to the hospital for further care.\n\nConclusion:\u00a0This study showed that multiparous women in their first trimester of pregnancy are at highest risk of VBIEP. It also highlighted early antenatal care and early use of point-of-care ultrasound may prevent and improve outcomes with VBIEP. Incomplete miscarriage was the commonest cause. A standardised management protocol for these patients should be developed, however larger studies must be conducted to validate this.\n\nContribution:\u00a0This study contributes to the limited literature on VBIEP in low to middle-income countries and the findings may influence the department of health\u2019s allocation of resources to this condition.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.4102\/jcmsa.v3i1.162","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,25]],"date-time":"2025-02-25T18:49:51Z","timestamp":1740509391000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.4102\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Vaginal bleeding in early pregnancy at a regional-level emergency department in KwaZulu-Natal"],"prefix":"10.4102","volume":"3","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-4547-9627","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mthunzi","family":"Maseko","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04qzfn040","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of KwaZulu-Natal"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-5164-4623","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Seelan","family":"Pillay","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04qzfn040","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of KwaZulu-Natal"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-1880-3809","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jaykumaran","family":"Govender","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/04qzfn040","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}],"name":"University of KwaZulu-Natal"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"2580","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,2,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref0","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Everett C. 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