Cerebral venous and arterial thrombosis in pregnancy and puerperium. A study of 135 patients.

Cerebral venous thrombosis occurring in puerperium is about 10 to 12 times more frequent in India than in Western countries. A clinical study of 135 patients with cerebrovascular accidents in early puerperium is reported. Cortical vein thrombosis is common and arterial thrombosis rare (6/135). The illness usually occurs within the first two weeks, after normal delivery at full term, in a multiparous woman, with multi-focal seizures, stupor or coma, regressing focal signs or at times as pseudotumour cerebri. Deep leg vein thrombosis and pelvic sepsis are rare. Mortality has been high reaching 28 to 33 percent in both Indian and Western countries. With the use of anticoagulants in some selected patients and earlier; energetic, supportive and symptomatic measures in others the mortality could be reduced to less than 20 percent. The quality of survival is good since those who survive have only minimal physical disability.