“Infant Survival After Cesarean Section for Trauma” (1996), by John A. Morris, Jr. et al.

In the May 1996 edition of The Annals of Surgery, John A. Morris and his collaborators published “Infant Survival After Cesarean Section for Trauma,” in which they evaluate the use of emergency cesarean sections for the treatment of pregnant trauma patients. During a cesarean section, a physician removes a fetus from a pregnant woman through an incision in her abdomen and uterus. When a pregnant woman experiences trauma, physicians can perform an emergency cesarean section to remove the fetus and administer medical treatments that would not be possible while the woman is pregnant. In their article, Morris and his colleagues examine the fetal outcomes following emergency cesarean sections to determine when the procedure should be used in a trauma setting. The authors support the use of emergency cesarean sections in trauma patients when those patients demonstrate high degrees of maternal and fetal distress. Morris and his team’s article is one of the first to focus on how trauma affects third trimester pregnancies and to develop an algorithm to help physicians treat those patients.