Postpartum Acute Pulmonary Oedema with Subclinical Rheumatic Heart Disease

Acute dyspnea with pulmonary oedema in postpartum is uncommon but life-threatening event. Contributing factors for pulmonary oedema include, administration of tocolytics, underlying cardiac disease, iatrogenic fluid overload and preeclampsia acounting 0.08% of pregnancies. Pulmonary embolism, amniotic fluid embolism, pneumonia, aspiration and pulmonary oedema are some of the potentially devastating conditions that should be considered by the attending physician. Here, we report a case of postpartum acute pulmonary oedema referred to causality after an emergency caesarean section in a private hospital. No matter what the underlying pathology, prompt administration and appropriate resuscitation is always the first priority. Only after the patient has been stabilized attention must be turned to diagnosis and specific treatment. A diagnosis of severe Mitral Stenosis, probably of rheumatic origin was made after stabilizing the patient.