[A patient with pulmonary edema following use of beta-sympathomimetics (tocolytic agents)]

During her pregnancy (29 weeks) a 29-year-old woman complained of pain in the right upper quadrant of her abdomen. Gallbladder stones were demonstrated by ultrasonography. Because of recurrent pain attacks cholecystectomy was performed. Continuous intravenous tocolytic therapy, fenoterol bromide (Parusisten), was given during and following surgery. Two days after this first laparotomy she underwent a second laparotomy because of unexplained abdominal pain and blood loss. A subhepatic haematoma was found without a specific origin for the blood loss. Shortly after this second operation she developed clinical signs and abnormalities on the chest X-ray compatible with severe pulmonary oedema. She needed artificial ventilation for 15 days. There appears to be a pathophysiological relationship between the development of pulmonary oedema and tocolytic therapy. Probably, pulmonary oedema may develop during tocolytic therapy as a result of several factors such as increased hydrostatic pressure, decreased oncotic pressure and perhaps capillary leakage.