Researchers also observed other pregnancy complications that may be associated with epilepsy in pregnant women including severe bleeding after and during delivery, abnormalities to the child, or childhood stunting in their offspring.
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Epilepsy is brain disorder characterized by abnormal nerve cell activity that causes seizures.
Statistics provided the Epilepsy Foundation reveal that the average incidence of epilepsy each year in the United States alone is estimated at 150,000 or 48 for every 100,000 people.
The researchers, led by Sarah C. MacDonald, B.South Carolina., from the Harvard T.H.
The latest study analyzed patient data from National Inpatient Sample which included 4,190,599 hospitalizations of pregnant women ready for delivery between 2007 and 2011.
“In the meantime, it may be necessary to consider pregnancies in women with epilepsy as high risk and follow them up accordingly throughout pregnancy”, she said. Response: Approximately 0.3-0.5% of all pregnancies are in women with epilepsy. (Nationwide, this would involve 69,385 women with epilepsy and 20.4 million women without in over 20.5 million total discharges.). We also found that women with epilepsy were at increased risk for a cesarean delivery, prolonged hospital stay, preeclampsia, preterm labor, stillbirth and other adverse outcomes. The researchers admitted that they were not able to delve into the exact causes of death of women with epilepsy, who underwent the delivery process.
She found that the death rate during delivery for women with epilepsy was 80 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies compared to 6 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies in women without epilepsy.
Response: The findings from our work suggest that women with epilepsy are at a higher risk for many adverse outcomes during their delivery admission in hospital. These women were also more likely to need Cesarean delivery and have longer hospital stays than those without epilepsy.
“Regardless of the specific cause, the point that women recorded as having epilepsy have an increased risk of mortality remains a clinically relevant message suggesting that increased attention should be paid”.
In addition, the study authors say, “We need to understand the mechanisms underlying these risks, including death, so that we can identify the specific populations at risk and devise interventions to reduce these risks”. Also even though the risk of death is increased in comparison with women who do not have epilepsy the death of the mother during delivery still occurs seldom even in the case of pregnant women with epilepsy.
They note, however, that the study raises more questions than it provides answers.
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“We would argue you don’t necessarily need a doubling of a risk to be an important outcome”, she added. But the study presents some limitations.
