Characteristics of obstetric intensive care unit admissions in New Jersey

To assess the demographic characteristics, risk factors and perinatal outcomes among maternal intensive care unit (ICU) admissions in New Jersey from 1997 to 2005.

Data were obtained from a perinatal linked database from MCH epidemiology programme in New Jersey. Chi-square test was used for bivariate analysis and stepwise logistic regression was used to assess the influence of the potential risk factors and pregnancy complications.

There were 15,447 (1.54%) ICU admissions and 23 maternal deaths (0.15%) among the 1,004,116 pregnancies. Analysis of demographic factors revealed that maternal age, race and smoking were significantly associated with ICU admission. Regression analysis adjusting for maternal age, parity, gravida, race, smoking status, maternal education and place of delivery found the following predictors for ICU admission, preeclampsia (odds ratio (OR): 2.8, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.6-3.0), eclampsia (OR: 6.8, 95% CI: 5.4-8.6), placenta previa (OR: 3.0, 95% CI: 2.7-3.4), abruption (OR: 8.9, 95% CI: 8.3-9.6), multifetal pregnancy (OR: 4.2, 95% CI: 4.1-4.4), diabetes (OR: 3.1, 95% CI: 2.7-3.5), acute renal failure (OR: 22.1, 95% CI: 13.3-36.6) and cesarean delivery (OR: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.5-2.4). Infants born to ICU admitted mothers had higher rates of NICU admission, neonatal intubations and lower Apgar scores compared with infants born to non-ICU admitted mothers.

Pregnancy complications are predictive of ICU admission amongst pregnant patients after adjusting for demographic factors.