HELLP syndrome

Published

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

Specializes in NICU, Psych, Education.

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

Specializes in OB, lactation.

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

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