Maternal and fetal outcomes of pregnancies with hypertensive disorders: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background and objective: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are considered a public health issue. The aim is to describe the clinical features, maternal - fetal outcomes of patients with this disease, who were admitted at the University Hospital of Santander (Bucaramanga, Colombia) during the first half of 2017. Method: Crosssectional retrospective observational study. Patients in pregnancy or puerperium with diagnosis of hypertensive disorder were included; those who could not be classified or did not correspond were excluded. Results: 181 clinical charts were analyzed, the age of the patients ranged between 14 and 44 years, 43.7% were nulliparous, 40.3% had an inadequate prenatal control and 27.5% had history of hypertensive disorder in previous pregnancies. 75.1% were classified as preeclampsia, 18.2% as gestational hypertension, 4.4% as hypertension and superimposed preeclampsia and 2.2% with chronic hypertension; 16.9% of the patients were of an earlyonset preeclampsia before week 34, of which 91.3% had criteria of severity; among the others, 84% presented criteria of severity. Conclusion: Preeclampsia was the most frequent hypertensive disorder, late and severe presentation prevailed with important maternal and fetal complication rates. Through the implementation of early detection strategies and adequate care of hypertensive disorders associated with pregnancy maternal and fetal outcomes could be improved.