ECLAMPSIA

Objective: To evaluate incidence, morbidity and mortalityassociated with eclampsia. Design: A prospective study. Place and Duration: The study which was carried out at PAFHospital Rafiqui, Shorkot spanned over a period of 2½ years from Jun 2002-Dec 2004. Patients and Methods: Thestudy comprises of 55 eclamptic cases diagnosed out of 3391 consecutive deliveries, carried out in our hospital.Results: The incidence of eclampsia, in this study, was found to be 1.62%. Out of 55 cases 38(69.1%) patients wereprimigravida. Forty three (78.2%) of the patients were between the ages of 21 to 30 years. In 50(90.9%) patientsgestational age was less than 35 weeks. Thirty seven (67.3%) cases had antepartum eclampsia. Forty four (80%)patients received diazepam while the remaining 11(20%) received magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) as anticonvulsant.Commonest mode of delivery was spontaneous vaginal delivery \(31 cases, 56.4%) followed by lower caesareansection (21 cases, 38.2%). Fetal loss was seen in 12(20.7%) cases. Two patients died of eclampsia, maternal mortalityrate being 3.6%. Conclusion: Eclampsia is a life threatening complication of pregnancy. However an improvement inantenatal care, upgrading the neonatal facilities and early delivery by cesarean section can improve the perinataloutcome.