Oxytocin quality audit and clinical experience in Nigeria

Poor-quality medicines may be an unaccounted root cause of high maternal mortality in low- and middle-income countries. The importance of quality-assured oxytocics cannot be overemphasized.

Two distinct but connected studies were conducted in Nigeria - to determine the quality of Oxytocin in a nationwide survey, and to assess the clinical experiences with the use of oxytocin by healthcare providers in Lagos State Nigeria. The result shows 74.2% of the samples analyzed by an internationally accredited physicochemical laboratory failed quality tests. Only 52 percent of the respondents knew the storage condition for oxytocin. About 41 percent use 20IU and as much as 10 percent use 30IU to 60IU for management of PPH.