[Hepatic complications of pregnancy]

Liver diseases specific of pregnancy, the most common hepatic complications of pregnancy, are always associated with a sometimes asymptomatic increase in serum aminotransferase activity. The most frequent of the liver diseases specific of pregnancy in normotensive pregnant women is cholestasis of pregnancy, the cause of generalised pruritus, and, in those with pregnancy-induced hypertension, preeclampsia which requires short-term cessation of pregnancy. Similar treatment is required by acute fatty liver of pregnancy the diagnosis of which must be done in the third trimester when recent polydipsia, nausea or vomiting occurs. Moreover, pregnancy increases the incidence and/or the severity of herpes simplex hepatitis (for which acyclovir therapy is urgently required) and hepatitis type E. Pregnancy may also unmask untreated cases of autoimmune hepatitis, Wilson's disease or Budd-Chiari syndrome.