Labour-related eclampsia.

Twenty-four cases of eclampsia managed in a hospital in Hong Kong over a five-year period were reviewed. Four patients had antepartum eclampsia and one had postpartum eclampsia following elective caesarean section. Four of these five patients had severe pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) (greater than 160/100 mmHg). The other 19 patients had eclampsia occurring during labour or within six hours of delivery. This group included 10 patients with labour-onset PIH, none of whom developed severe hypertension before their convulsions. In the remaining nine patients, only five had severe hypertension before convulsion. The results suggest that labour-related eclampsia has become more common than antepartum eclampsia, and severe hypertension before convulsion is an infrequent finding and therefore an unreliable sign in these patients.