A 5-year review of maternal mortality associated with eclampsia in a tertiary institution in northern Nigeria.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the incidence of maternal mortality associated with eclampsia and to determine how socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of the women influence the deaths.


METHODS
Records of 52 eclampsia-related mortalities from January 2003 to December 2007 were reviewed, retrospectively. Their social demography, mode and place of delivery, time of eclampsia, and fetal outcome were extracted for analysis.


RESULTS
Eclampsia accounted for 52 (46.4%) of the 112 total maternal deaths recorded within the 5-year period, with case fatality of 22.33%. Age group <20, 20-29 and above 30 all had similar case fatality rate of 22.1%, 23.8% and 26.7%, respectively. Those who were experiencing their first deliveries have the worst deaths recording 42.5% of the case fatality in that category. As expected, unbooked had a higher case fatality of 24.0% compared to 15% among book cases, while those with formal education also had more death (22.3% case fatality) as compared to 3.3% among those who had some form of formal education. Antepartum eclampsia was the cause in 50% of the death, 11 (21.2%) of the pregnancies were not delivered before their death, while 18 (34.6%) were stillbirth.


CONCLUSIONS
Eclampsia still remains the major cause of maternal mortality in this region resulting from unsupervised pregnancies and deliveries. There is need to educate and encourage the general public for antenatal care and hospital delivery.
Kullima
Abubakar Ali
AA
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Federal Medical Centre Nguru, Nigeria. drkullima@yahoo.com
Kawuwa
Mohammed Bello
MB
Audu
Bala Mohammed
BM
Usman
Hadiza
H
Geidam
Ado Danazumi
AD
D000328:Adult; D004461:Eclampsia / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008428:Maternal Mortality / Q000639:trends; D011247:Pregnancy; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D055815:Young Adult