Maternal and Perinatal Outcome Associated With Gestational Hypertension (original) (raw)

Introduction: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are the most common causes of adverse maternal & perinatal outcomes. Such investigations in resource limited settings would help to have great design strategies in preventing maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. All women who presented with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy and delivered in the hospital and whose records were complete, were included in the study and divided into 5 groups namely, Gestational hypertension (GH), Mild pre-eclampsia (PE), Severe pre-eclampsia, Eclampsia and Chronic hypertension with superimposed pre-eclampsia (CHPE) based on their clinical presentation at admission. After excluding all incomplete data entries, the sample size was finalized at 200. Results: In this study, records of 2,989 women who delivered in our tertiary hospital were reviewed and of these, 256 women had hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Fifty six of these women had either left the hospital against medical advice or their records were incomplete so their outcome could not be followed and hence were excluded from the study. Conclusion: Pre-eclampsia and Eclampsia still remains a major problem in developing countries. Pregnancy induced hypertension is one of the most extensively researched subjects in obstetrics. Still the etiology remains an enigma to us. Though the incidence of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia is on the decline, still it remains the major contributor to poor maternal and foetal outcome. The fact that pre-eclampsia, eclampsia is largely a preventable disease is established by the negligible incidence of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia with proper antenatal care and prompt treatment of pre-eclampsia. In preclampsia and eclampsia, pathology should be understood and that i-involves multiorgan dysfunction should be taken into account. The early use of antihypertensive drugs, optimum timing of delivery and strict fluid balance, anticonvulsants in cases of eclampsia will help to achieve successful outcome. Early transfer to specialist centre is important and the referral the referral centers should be well equipped to treat such critically ill patients.