Liver lacerations as a complication of CPR during pregnancy

Cardiac arrest in peripartum patients is a rare but devastating event; reported rates in the literature range from 0.019% to 0.0085%. In the general population, a well-described complication of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), liver laceration and injury, is reported at a rate of between 0.5-2.9% after CPR. Liver laceration rate among peripartum patients receiving CPR has not been well-studied. We sought to find the rate of liver lacerations in the peripartum population associated with CPR, with the hypothesis that the rate would be higher than in the general population.

We identified pregnancies complicated by cardiac arrest by performing a retrospective medical record review from 2011 to 2016 at a single tertiary referral hospital. We then compared the rate of liver lacerations in this group to the rate in the general population as found in the literature.

Eleven of 9408 women in the peripartum period suffered cardiac arrest. Return of spontaneous circulation occurred in seven of eleven (64%) women. Three of these seven women suffered clinically significant liver laceration (43%). Overall mortality rate among women suffering cardiac arrest was 82% (9/11).Even after return of spontaneous circulation, the mortality rate was 72%(5/7) including two of three women suffering liver laceration.

Based on a small retrospective study, liver lacerations requiring intervention occurred in 43% of gravidas patients that survived CPR, and is significantly higher than published rates (0.6-2.1%) for the general patient population. Further studies are indicated to determine the incidence of liver injury after peripartum CPR.