[Version by internal maneuvers: alternative to cesarean section under precarious conditions. The experience of the University Clinic of Gynecology and Obstetrics].

Obstetrics practised in African University Hospitals is beset with specific constraints. The emergency admission of a woman whose fetus is dead or severely compromised, after an extended labor and an obvious ovular infection, leads to fear an hysterotomy as well as an hysterectomy. The authors specify, under their work conditions, the indications of internal version maneuvers, from 50 cases collected in one year. The fetal prognosis is not taken into account since it concerns dead or very threatened children. As for the maternal prognosis, it is excellent since the average stay is of 48 hours and no severe infection developed, which is not the case for caesarean sections performed under the same circumstances. If a maternal death must be deplored, it concerned a placenta praevia in a distressing conjunction of circumstances since the blood bank was out of blood.