DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2015.v03i02.066

Pages: 868-872

This study is to evaluate the perinatal outcome associated with chronic hypertension in South-Western Nigerian women. All the cases of pre-existing hypertension managed over a 5-year period were reviewed and the outcome compared with those without pre-existing hypertension managed over the same period. Main outcome measures were rates of stillbirth, birth asphyxia and low birth weight. The stillbirth rate associated with essential hypertension was 143 deaths per 1000 births, and it was 78 for non-chronically hypertensive women (Relative risk [RR] 1.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2 – 2.8). Similarly, the risk of delivery of babies with low birth weight and birth asphyxia were increased in chronically hypertensive women (RR [CI] was 2.1 [1.6 – 2.9] and 2.0 [1.3 – 3.6] respectively. Superimposed pre-eclampsia were responsible for these increase in all the outcomes considered. We conclude that women with chronic hypertension have favourable perinatal outcomes if they do not develop superimposed pre-eclampsia.