Eclampsia refers to a type of pregnancy complication where the pregnant woman experiences convulsions or seizures after conceiving. This is why, Eclampsia is also known as toxemia with seizures. Eclampsia is a Greek word meaning "bolt from the blue". It would be very wrong to neglect Eclampsia as this is a serious kind of complication during pregnancy and it usually leads to serious consequences if not treated with medicine at the right time. Eclampsia generally occurs after the pre Eclampsia phase but unfortunately, no pre- eclamptic symptoms are recognized in some cases. The convulsions might come up at any time, before, during or after labor. But, in most of the cases, Eclampsia occurs after 20 weeks of pregnancy. Let us focus on the signs and symptoms through which Eclampsia can be detected:
Pregnancy induced hypertension
eclamptic convulsion
renal failure or pulmonary edema
Stages of Eclampsia:
Premonitory stage- in this stage facial and hand muscles twitch slightly.
Tonic stage- this stage is characterized by clenching, arms and legs go rigid, respiratory muscles spasm and this stage continues for 30 seconds.
Clonic stage- muscles jerk violently and this stage can even lead to coma or heart failure.
Comatose stage- in this stage the woman gets into coma and starts breathing noisily and this stage might persist for few minutes or even for hours.
|
|
Thus, it is quite evident that Eclampsia can be quite fatal for both mother and the fetus and the treatment mode covers prevention of convulsion, delivery of fetus and blood pressure control. Delivery should take place immediately after the woman gets stabilized. Delayed delivery would be risky for both the woman and the fetus and so, delivery should be carried out at any point of gestational age especially at the time when the doctors would feel it is safe to take out the baby after analyzing the woman's condition. Convulsions are usually prevented by magnesium sulfate and blood pressure can be controlled by hydralazine 5 mg IV slowly every 5 minutes. Delivery should be conducted after controlling both the convulsions and high blood pressure.
To know about pregnancy complications, log on to pregnancyxl.com.
|
|
