title: Mortality and Morbidity During Delivery Hospitalization Among Pregnant Women With Epilepsy in the United States.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Between 0.3% and 0.5% of all pregnancies occur among women with epilepsy. Evidence suggests an increase in perinatal morbidity and mortality among women with epilepsy. However, these risks have not been quantified in large population-based samples.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To report on the risk for death and adverse outcomes at the time of delivery for women with epilepsy in the United States.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective cohort study of pregnant women identified through delivery hospitalization records from the 2007-2011 Nationwide Inpatient Sample. From this representative sample of 20% of all US hospitals, we obtained a weighted sample of delivery hospitalizations from 69 385 women with epilepsy and 20 449 532 women without epilepsy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Obstetrical outcomes including maternal death, cesarean delivery, length of stay, preeclampsia, preterm labor, and stillbirth.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Women with epilepsy had a risk of death during delivery hospitalization of 80 deaths per 100 000 pregnancies, significantly higher than the 6 deaths per 100 000 pregnancies found among women without epilepsy (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 11.46 [95% CI, 8.64-15.19]). Women with epilepsy were also at a heightened risk for other adverse outcomes, including preeclampsia (adjusted OR, 1.59 [95% CI, 1.54-1.63]), preterm labor (adjusted OR, 1.54 [95% CI, 1.50-1.57]), and stillbirth (adjusted OR, 1.27 [95% CI, 1.17-1.38]), and had increased health care utilization, including an increased risk of cesarean delivery (adjusted OR, 1.40 [95% CI, 1.38-1.42]) and prolonged length of hospital stay (>6 days) among both women with cesarean deliveries (adjusted OR, 2.13 [95% CI, 2.03-2.23]) and women with vaginal deliveries (adjusted OR, 2.60 [95% CI, 2.41-2.80]).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings suggest that women with epilepsy are at considerably heightened risk for many adverse outcomes during their delivery hospitalization, including a more than 10-fold increased risk of death, and that increased clinical attention is imperative for these pregnancies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Sarah C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: MacDonald
authors.affiliation: Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts3Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital.
authors.forename: Brian T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Bateman
authors.affiliation: Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Thomas F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: McElrath
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Sonia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hernández-Díaz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult