HELLP syndrome

[Ninkynonk]

Hello :)

I am coming out of lurkerdom to ask this!

My area of interest is PICU nursing as I hope to work there once I have my RN.

I had HELLP with my last pregnancy and delivered at 29+6.

I tend to field a lot of questions about this and while I know a fair bit my clinical knowledge of it is not great.

How common is it?

What are the maternal/foetal mortality rates?

Is it recognised as a condition that can occur separately from PE (mine appeared without protien in urine etc).

And are there any indicators for this ie smoking, weight, age etc?

Thankyou so much

[EricJRN, MSN, RN]

Here's a great article related to thrombocytopenia in pregnancy. Section 7 covers HELLP syndrome specifically. It addresses many of your questions.

http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic3480.htm

[mitchsmom]

from the preeclampsia foundation website (wonderful site!!!):

risk factors for preeclampsia:

http://www.preeclampsia.org/faq.asp#five

preeclampsia statistics:

http://www.preeclampsia.org/statistics.asp

hypertensive disorders of pregnancy complicate

10% of all pregnancies or the lives of 358,784 women

@ a cost of ~$8,374 per case or

$3,004,457,216

3 billion per year

maternal death

18% of u.s. maternal deaths -several hundred women

incalculable

infant illness

81,708 premature births (~15%)

@ a cost of ~$50, 303 per case or

$4,110,157,524

4 billion per year")

from the hellp syndrom society page:

who is at risk for getting hellp?

http://www.hellpsyndrome.org/templates/system/details.asp?id=40426&pid=493957

risk of getting hellp in future pregnancies:

http://www.hellpsyndrome.org/templates/system/details.asp?id=40426&pid=493958