[The "30 minutes rule"--always applicable?].

The "30 minute rule" is a clinical guideline of obstetrical organizations in several countries of the Western world. It dictates a lag time of no more than 30 minutes between the decision to terminate a delivery by cesarean section when fetal distress is suspected and the implementation. There is no scientific foundation for this rule and physicians may be unjustly exposed to claims when they fail to comply. In this review, we criticalLy discuss the pertinent literature, the relevant guidelines and propose a modification of the "30-minutes rule", which is aimed to differentiate between emergent and urgent operations.