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Pregnancy in uremic patients: An eventful journey
Author(s) -
Bolignano Davide,
Coppolino Giuseppe,
Crascì Eleonora,
Campo Susanna,
Aloisi Carmela,
Buemi Michele
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of obstetrics and gynaecology research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.597
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1447-0756
pISSN - 1341-8076
DOI - 10.1111/j.1447-0756.2008.00751.x
Subject(s) - medicine , peritoneal dialysis , pregnancy , eclampsia , transplantation , hemodialysis , intensive care medicine , obstetrics , dialysis , preterm delivery , fetus , surgery , genetics , biology
Renal damage, which can be caused by gestational anomalies such as pre‐eclampsia, carries a risk of gestational complications; the greatest risk being in women who become pregnant while on hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis. If this rare event occurs, there is a marked increase in the risk of pre‐eclampsia, early uterine contractions and hydramnios, hypertensive crisis, preterm delivery and intrauterine growth retard. Furthermore, newborns are almost always of low birthweight. Patients who undergo renal transplantation are another high‐risk category. In such cases, the pregnancy itself can compromise the success of the transplant and the immunosuppressive therapy correlated to it can become a threat to the course of the pregnancy and normal fetal growth. Therefore, in view of the lack of appropriate guidelines for the best possible approach to the treatment of women on dialysis or of those with a renal transplantation, it is best to advise these patients against becoming pregnant and/or to provide a valid counselling service illustrating the extreme difficulties and dangers involved in becoming pregnant.