Comparison between different perineal outcomes on tissue healing.

Perineal healing was compared between 181 women with episiotomies and 186 women without episiotomies at one to two weeks after delivery. Subjects were medically indigent low-risk women who had normal spontaneous vaginal deliveries at the same tertiary-care hospital. Maternal age, race, parity, and birth weight did not have an independent effect on perineal healing. Perineal outcome at delivery and length of second stage exhibited a significant relationship with perineal healing. Overall, there was a 4.9% incidence of delayed perineal healing due to wound separation or clinical infection. In the episiotomy group, 7.7% of the subjects experienced delayed perineal healing compared with 2.2% in the no-episiotomy group. This was statistically significant using Pearson chi-square analysis. These results suggest that women without episiotomies exhibit better perineal healing than women with episiotomies.