Publication:

Study on maternal and perinatal outcome in eclampsia in a tertiary care hospital

Background Eclampsia is an unpredictable multi-organ disease unique to pregnancy and is largely a preventable condition, responsible for high maternal and perinatal mortality.

Methods The present study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College, Jhansi. It was a retrospective study conducted over a period of 12 months on all eclamptic cases attending our hospital and feto-maternal outcome data was analysed.

Results The incidence of eclampsia in our hospital was 2.22%. Most of the eclamptic cases were antepartum eclampsia constituting 81.48%. During the study period there were a total of 2430 obstetric admissions out of which 54 were eclamptic cases. There were 89 near miss cases and 21 maternal deaths. 16 (17.97%) near miss cases and 7(33.33%) maternal deaths were due to eclampsia. 37.03% patients had complications. Pulmonary edema/ARDS was the most common complication seen in our study. Early neonatal mortality in our study was 11.11%, 11 new-borns needed NICU care. Prematurity was the most common cause.

Conclusions Adequate screening, monitoring and routine check-up during and after pregnancy may prevent worsening the maternal and foetal outcome. Lack of antenatal care is a common risk factor for eclampsia is and this needs to be addressed to prevent this serious complication of pregnancy.