Characteristics and outcome of severe preeclampsia/eclampsia concurrent with or complicated by acute pancreatitis: a report of five cases and literature review

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the rate of acute pancreatitis in preeclampsia/eclampsia patients and describe the clinical manifestations, treatment characteristics and outcome of five cases of severe preeclampsia concurrent with or complicated by acute pancreatitis.

Methods: The clinical data of pregnant women with preexisting or gestational hypertension who sought medical care between January 2002 and December 2015 at the Pregnant Women Critical Care Unit of Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China were retrieved. The rate of acute pancreatitis in preeclampsia/eclampsia patients was calculated and patients with preeclampsia/eclampsia and acute pancreatitis were included for further analysis.

Results: Totally 1703 pregnant women who received medical care at our institution during the review period were diagnosed with hypertension. Four hundred and seven (23.9%) of them had severe preeclampsia. Five (1.2%, 5/407) women with severe preeclampsia developed acute pancreatitis. Their median age was 32 (range 25–35) years and the median duration of gestation was 32 (range 28–40) weeks. Mild acute pancreatitis occurred in three cases, and moderately severe and severe acute pancreatitis in one case each. Four patients underwent cesarean resection and one patient underwent vaginal delivery. Conservative therapy was undertaken. No patient received surgical intervention and cure was achieved in all patients.

Conclusion: Acute pancreatitis may complicate severe preeclampsia/eclampsia or may be concurrent with severe preeclampsia/eclampsia, complicating and compromising the management of preeclampsia/eclampsia. Physicians should be alert for the presence of acute pancreatitis as prompt diagnosis and treatment, rapid termination of pregnancy and subsequent conservative management of pancreatitis could lead to a general favorable outcome.

Keywords:

• Acute pancreatitis
• conservative treatment
• eclampsia
• incidence
• outcome
• preeclampsia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.