Acute hepatic steatosis of pregnancy, which is the appearance of fat in the pregnant woman's liver, is a rare and serious complication that usually appears in the third trimester of pregnancy and that brings a high risk of life for both mother and baby.
This problem usually occurs in the first pregnancy, but it can also occur in women who have had children, even without a history of complications in the previous pregnancy.
Symptoms
Hepatic steatosis in pregnancy usually appears between the 28th and 40th week of pregnancy, causing initial symptoms of nausea, vomiting and malaise, which are followed by abdominal pain, headache, bleeding gums and dehydration.
After the first week of onset, the jaundice symptom appears, which is when the skin and eyes become yellow. In addition, in some cases the pregnant woman may also experience high blood pressure and swelling in the body.
However, as all of these symptoms usually occur in various diseases, it is difficult to have an early diagnosis of fat in the liver, which increases the chances of worsening the problem.
Diagnosis
The diagnosis of this complication is difficult and is usually done through the identification of symptoms, blood tests and liver biopsy, which assesses the presence of fat in this organ.
However, when it is not possible to perform a biopsy due to the pregnant woman's serious health condition, tests such as ultrasound and computed tomography can help to identify the problem, but they do not always give reliable results.
Treatment
As soon as the acute hepatic steatosis of pregnancy is diagnosed, the woman must be admitted to start the treatment of the disease, which is done with the termination of pregnancy through normal or cesarean delivery, depending on the severity of the case.
When properly treated, the woman improves between 6 to 20 days after delivery, but if the problem is not identified and treated early, complications such as acute pancreatitis, convulsions, swelling in the belly, pulmonary edema, diabetes insipidus, intestinal bleeding or in the abdomen and hypoglycemia.
In the most severe cases, acute liver failure may also appear before or after delivery, which is when the liver stops functioning, impairing the functioning of other organs and increasing the risk of death. In such cases, it may be necessary to have a liver transplant after delivery, if the organ continues to show no improvement.
Risk factors
Liver steatosis can arise even during a healthy pregnancy, but some factors increase the risk of developing this complication, such as:
- First pregnancy; Pre-eclampsia; Male fetus; Twin pregnancy.
It is important that pregnant women with these risk factors be aware of any changes felt in the last trimester of pregnancy, in addition to doing prenatal care and adequate monitoring to control preeclampsia.
In addition, women who have had liver steatosis should be monitored more frequently in the next pregnancies, as they have an increased wealth to develop this complication again.
To prevent complications during pregnancy, see:
