WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Onukogu O. S.* and Ozims S. J.

ABSTRACT

A retrospective study was carried out to determine the risk factor for eclampsia and its fetomaternal outcome in pregnant women who presented to 3 specialist hospitals in Imo State within a 4 year period, starting from January 2014, to December, 2017. Data were obtained from the folders by the aid of a well constructed check list, and analyzed using SPSS (statistical package for social Sciences). Level of Significance was set at P — 0.05. A total of 3106 deliveries were recorded, out of which 45 cases of eclampsia was noted. 37 of the 45 case files had the complete required information for the study and were used. This gave a prevalence of 1.45. The mean age for eclampsia was noted to be 25.65 years, with ages 30 years having the highest fi-equencies. At diagnosis, all the women had; Proteinuria (32 women 786.5% had 3 pluses of protein in urine); High blood pressure (25/67.6% had systolic blood pressure >190mmHg); and Seizures (30/81.1% experienced 3 seizures prior to delivery). A significant association was noted between the level of education, Hypertension, proteinuria, Seizures, fetomaternal outcome and eclampsia. Although with the use of Chi Square, no significant association was found between age and eclampsia, a high percentage of the women were < 20 years. Eclampsia is both a preventable and controllable disease of pregnancy. Efforts should be geared towards proper awareness, early diagnosis and control of eclampsia and its precursor, pre-eclampsia.