Eclampsia: Feto-Maternal Outcomes in A Tertiary Care Centre in Eastern Nepal

Eclampsia is a preventable and treatable cause of maternal morbidity and mortality with poor feto-maternal outcome in developing countries. Despite development in the level of health education expertise in human resources and institutional obstetric care in our country, the delay in early recognition of the problem, transportation to proper health facility and getting proper expert care are major hurdles to reduce complications. Therefore, we decided to study feto-maternal outcomes in our setting.

A retrospective cross-sectional hospital based study carried out in Nobel Medical College,Biratnagar, from 17th June 2014 to 16th June 2015. Details and data obtained from Medical Record Section were analysed. All patients with eclampsia were included and fetomaternal outcomes measured in terms of complications. Simple descriptive statistical method was applied for analysis.

Among 8,066 deliveries, 112 had eclampsia with incidence of 13.8/1000 deliveries. Majority (41%) were of <19 years of age. Above 90% were unbooked. Aoubt 63.4% were primiparas and 83% had antepartum eclampsia. Eclamptic fits were more common (41.6%) in 37-40 weeks period of gestation. Fits to delivery interval was more than six hours in 89.1% women and 69.3% women underwent caesarean delivery. About 18.9% women developed eclampsia related complications.Common causes of maternal deaths (5.36%) were pulmonary edema, aspiration pneumonia,cerebrovascular accidents and HELLP syndrome. Perinatal death was nine percent.

Although the obstetric care facilities are improving with time, the feto-maternal outcomes are still poor in our country. Therefore early recognition and proper management are vital to tackle this challenge.