Pregnancy outcomes in patients with sickle cell disease in Enugu, Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Pregnancy in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with increased maternal and foetal morbidity and mortality. The objective of this study was to review the pregnancy outcomes in patients with SCD as seen at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital(UNTH), Enugu, South-eastern Nigeria. METHODS: This is a retrospective study. The data extracted from the patients' case files include the age, parity, gestational age at booking and complications of disease and pregnancy during the antenatal period, labour and puerperium. Fetal outcomes were also reviewed. RESULTS: During the 30-year period under study (1975-2004), only 10 pregnant women with sickle cell disease were documented to have been attended to. Pregnancies were characterized by high maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality. Maternal complications identified were maternal mortality, lobar pneumonia, HIV and recurrent malaria infections, candidiasis, bone pain crises, haemolytic crises, pseudotoxaemia and pre-eclampsia. Fetal complications included intra-uterine fetal deaths, still births, low birth weights, and breech presentation. CONCLUSION: From this study, it seems that female SCD patients present more rarely with pregnancy in South-eastern compared to South-western Nigeria. However, the spectrum of complications seen is similar to that recorded in other studies.