[Postpartum emergencies: some aspects]

The critical states occurring during pregnancy, labor, and early puerperium were analyzed. Seventy puerperas treated at intensive care units (ICU) were examined. The patients were divided into 5 groups: 1) those with preeclampsia (n = 15); 2) eclampsia (n = 22); 3) massive blood loss (n = 17); 4) pyoseptic complications (n = 10); 5) acute respiratory failure (n = 6). The APACHE II scale severity was 22 +/- 5.3 scores. The mean age of puerperas is 29.2 +/- 7.2 years. Total mortality was 14.3%. Parametric and non-parametric statistic methods were used to analyze the reasons for referral of the patients to ICU, their age composition, the association of an outcome to the time of their referral to ICU, the duration of stay there and at hospital, mortality, the time of controlled ventilation, the incidence of multiorgan failure. The common reasons for referral of the puerperas from maternity homes to ICU were eclampsia, preeclampsia, and massive blood loss. Acute respiratory distress syndrome (52.9%), encephalopathy (44.3%), coma (47.1%), and intestinal insufficiency (38.6%) were predominant in the pattern of multiorgan failure in intensive care obstetric patients. When emergencies occurred in puerperas, earlier referral from maternal homes to ICU caused a reduction in mortality from 33.% at referral on day 3 after their occurrence to 23.5% at referral on day 2, and to 11.5 at referral on day 1.