Anesthesia in pregnant women with HELLP syndrome.

OBJECTIVE

Our purpose was to determine the types of anesthesia and neurologic or hematologic complications found in pregnancy with HELLP syndrome providing analgesia for cesarean section.

METHODS

This is a retrospective study. For the period of 1 July 1996, through 30 June 2000, we reviewed the charts of all patients with HELLP syndrome who had cesarean section.

RESULTS

During the period of study 119 patients had HELLP syndrome. Eighty-five patients had cesarean delivery and 34 had vaginal delivery. Seventy-one patients had diagnosed HELLP syndrome previous to the anesthesia and 14 postcesarean delivery; the range platelet count was 19000-143000/microl. Of these 71, 58 had an epidural anesthesia, 9 had general anesthesia and 4 had spinal anesthesia. There were no neurologic complications or bleeding in the epidural space.

CONCLUSION

We found no documentation of any neurologic or hematologic complications of women with HELLP syndrome and neuraxial anesthesia.