Keywords :
COVID-19 in pregnancy, Maternal mortality, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2
Citation Information :
Bachani S, Arora R, Dabral A, Bhagwati NM. COVID-19 in Pregnancy: Case-based Analysis of Maternal Mortality. J South Asian Feder Obs Gynae 2023; 15 (5):618-623.
Background: Coronavirus infectious disease-2019 (COVID-19) is a respiratory system disease caused by the novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which started in Wuhan province of China and soon became a pandemic involving almost all the countries of the world. COVID-19-infected people with all age-groups, from neonates to pregnant women, were also infected with varying presentations. Pregnancy is a high-risk condition for developing severe COVID-19, and these patients need to be monitored closely.
Objectives: We are reviewing a case series of all pregnant women who succumbed to COVID-19 pneumonia in a tertiary care teaching hospital in the capital city of New Delhi in India to understand the clinical profile of pregnant patients dying of COVID.
Study design: It is a retrospective case series review, where case records of all pregnant women who were admitted to a teaching tertiary care hospital for a period of 1 year from the start of the pandemic were reviewed.
Results: In this retrospective review, case records of all 282 pregnant women admitted to our hospital were reviewed. Eight pregnant women suffering from COVID-19 died in our hospital. Detailed analysis of all 8 mortalities among pregnant women infected with COVID-19 was done. Clinical profile and laboratory values of all these cases were analyzed and discussed in the review.
Conclusion: COVID-19-related maternal deaths are not uncommon. Fever is almost the universal symptom of presentation and all fevers in the pandemic should be evaluated for COVID-19 owing to the ongoing pandemic. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 causes respiratory tract infection and widespread inflammation, which culminates in multiorgan failure in some pregnant women. The course of illness in patients who die because of COVID is very aggressive, and these patients develop septic shock early in the course, possibly owing to the immunosuppressed state of pregnancy.
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