AIM: Severe acute maternal morbidity (SAMM) is a state of the woman, when she nearly died, but survived. The aim of study was to fi nd out the exact incidence of SAMM in Slovakia, establishment of functional surveillance system and improve quality of health care. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The regular annual analyses of SAMM cases in Slovakia from January 1 st 2012 to December 31 st 2016. Observed SAMM included: peripartum haemorrhage, peripartum hysterectomy, uterine rupture, abnormally invasive placenta, HELLP syndrome, eclampsia, sepsis, transport to intensive care unit or anaesthesiology and non-fatal amniotic fl uid embolism. RESULTS: The response rate of questionnaires was 84.8 %. The overall confi rmed incidence of SAMM was 6.35/1,000 births (95% CI 6.03-6.67). The most often causes of SAMM were: peripartum haemorrhage (2.1/1,000 births), transport to intensive care unit or anaesthesiology (1.46/1,000 births), peripartum hysterectomy (0.84/1,000 births) and HELLP syndrome (0.63/1,000 births). The average age of women with SAMM was 30.3 years (14-46) and average parity was 1.16 (0-15). CONCLUSION: The incidence of SAMM and especially incidence of peripartum haemorrhage and peripartum hysterectomy in Slovakia is one of the highest in Europe. To decrease incidence and improve management and outcome of patients, regular audit of SAMM is needed (Tab. 3, Fig. 2, Ref. 30). Text in PDF www.elis.sk. KEY WORDS: severe acute maternal morbidity, surveillance system, severe postpartum haemorrhage, peripartum hysterectomy, eclampsia, HELLP syndrome, abnormally invasive placenta, uterine rupture, sepsis, amniotic fl uid embolism, transport to intensive care unit or anaesthesiology.
