Cocaine use in pregnancy and the risk of intraamniotic infection.

A retrospective, case-control study was performed to determine whether pregnant women using cocaine had an increase in maternal infectious morbidity. Seventy-six women with urine drug screens positive for cocaine on admission to the labor and delivery unit were compared to 134 women who had negative urine drug screens. Patients were matched for risk factors associated with the development of intraamniotic infection and endometritis, such as parity, length of labor and length of membrane rupture. There was no significant difference in the incidence of intraamniotic infection or endometritis between the two groups. Thus, cocaine does not appear to increase the risk of peripartum infectious morbidity after controlling for well-established risk factors.