Questions about Clonus

We always assess presence or lack of clonus in the whole assessment of woman at risk for preeclampsia/eclampsia. It's surely simple enough, and is part of the whole assessment. If a person is positive for clonus, there is sufficient nervous system excitability to indicate possible and real risk of seizure (eclampsia) ---it's as simple as that. Its presence along with others symptoms, such as epigastric pain, elevated liver enzymes, proteinuria, and elevated blood pressures, facial and extremity edema and vision disturbances---- definately warrants treatment and seizure precautions be taken asap. I have never worked anywhere presence of clonus was NOT assessed in the over assessment of all new admits in labor/delivery. It's so simple, I can't imagine why NOT.

Smiling Blue Eyes gave you a wonderful answer. We also always check for clonus when we do a preeclamptic assessment. The nurses check patellar, and usually biceps reflex as well as for clonus. It's a good baseline to have, especially if you need to start Mag.

Marilyn

I'm in PP and we check EVERY pt for clonus q shift, PIH pts get checked q 4h.

The OB unit I'm doing this clinical rotation on has DTR & clonus checks as part of every mom's shift assessment.