Pre-eclampsia causing severe maternal morbidity - A national retrospective review of preventability and opportunities for improved care

Introduction: Pre-eclampsia and related sequelae are a leading cause of severe maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. A significant proportion of these poor outcomes may be preventable with improvements along the continuum of maternal and neonatal care.

Aims: The aim of this study was to review cases of pre-eclampsia resulting in severe maternal morbidity, describing the maternal and neonatal outcomes and the potential preventability of severe maternal morbidity (SMM).

Materials and methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of cases of SMM associated with severe pre-eclampsia - a subset of a national SMM review study. Inclusion criteria for this subset were women who were pregnant or within 42 days of delivery with severe pre-eclampsia as the main reason for admission to an intensive care unit or high dependency unit in New Zealand between 1 August 2013 and 31 January 2015 inclusive. A multidisciplinary expert panel reviewed cases for preventability using a validated preventability tool.

Results: Of the 89 severe morbidities that were reviewed, 10 had eclampsia (11%) and there were four neonatal mortalities (4.3%). Multidisciplinary committees assessed the severe morbidity as potentially preventable in 31% (28) of cases with the majority due to delays in diagnosis and suboptimal treatment.

Conclusion: We found a high level of preventable morbidity in cases of severe pre-eclampsia with a concerning number of preventable eclampsia. Implementation of evidence-based guidelines reinforced with education would assist clinicians to improve risk recognition, timely diagnosis and treatment and decrease potentially preventable severe morbidity associated with pre-eclampsia.