Spontaneous hepatic rupture during third trimester of pregnancy

A Peitsidou1, P Peitsidis, J Contis

  • 1Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Alexandra General Hospital, Athens, Greece.

Acta Chirurgica Belgica
|September 24, 2008
PubMed

Hepatic rupture is a rare and devastating complication in pregnancy, mainly associated with pre-eclampsia and HELLP (Hemolysis, Elevated Liver enzymes, Low Platelet count). It has an incidence of 1 case in 45,000-225,000 births. Nearly 200 cases have been reported in the international literature. We report a case of a hepatic rupture with severe haemorrhage caused by HELLP in a third trimester pregnancy. The case was managed successfully with no pathological complications for either the mother or the infant. The physician should be aware of this condition when dealing with intra-abdominal haemorrhage during pregnancy.

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