Mortality in eclampsia in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH); comparison of the recent 10-year period (1977-1986) with the previous 10 year period (1967-1976).
Over a 10-year period, between 1st January 1977 and 31st December 1986, a total of 572 eclamptic patients were treated in the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH). Three hundred and eighty-four of these patients (66.4%) were pre-delivery eclamptics, while 188 (33.6%) were post-partum eclamptics. The great majority of these cases (448) (98.3%) were unbooked patients. The overall maternal deaths from eclampsia or its complications during the period were 62 (108 per 1000) while the known perinatal deaths associated with the condition was 100 (240 per 1000). The mean Caesarean Section (C/S) rate in the pre-delivery eclamptics was 30.22 +/- SD 19.62%, while the mean C/S rate in all eclamptic patients treated in LUTH during this period was 22.20 +/- SD 15.04%. Comparison of the data from the recent decade to that of the previous decade (1966-1976), shows that the number of eclamptic patients treated in the LUTH, over the recent decade (1977-1986) more than doubled the number of eclamptics treated in the previous decade (1967-1976) (572 as compared with 273 for the previous decade). The overall maternal mortality rate remained unchanged (106 to 108 per 1000), while the perinatal mortality rate increased from 117 per 1000 to 240 per 1000 in the recent decade respectively. The C/S rate in the pre-delivery eclamptics increased during the period from 21.3% in the previous decade to 30.2% in the recent decade. The unbooked eclamptic patients remain the dominant group in the two studies.
Odum
C U
CU
Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, College of Medicine, University of Lagos.
Akinkugbe
A
A
Emuveyan
E E
EE
D000328:Adult; D002585:Cesarean Section / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004461:Eclampsia / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008428:Maternal Mortality; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011247:Pregnancy