Pregnancy Outcome of Sickle Cell Disease Women

Objective: To evaluate the maternal and fetal outcome in pregnant women with sickle cell disease (SCD) compared with healthy women. Setting: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Salmaniya Medical Complex, Bahrain. Design: Retrospective Case-Control Study. Method: Patients with SCD who delivered from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2012 were reviewed. The matched controls had neither SCD nor sickle cell trait. Result: Patients with sickle cell disease required significantly more admissions during their pregnancy, 135 (78.4%) compared to the control, 74 (37.4%). One hundred thirteen (65.6%) SCD patients were admitted with vaso-occlusive crises and 18 (10.4%) with hemolytic crises. SCD patients had a significant decrease in parity, gestational age and birth weight compared with the control group. SCD patients had a significant rise in the incidence of urinary tract infection, but there was no difference between both groups in the incidence of hypertensive disorders, mode of delivery and perinatal outcome. Four (2.3%) patients with SCD died; two (1.2%) patients died due to pulmonary embolism, one (0.6%) due to acute chest syndrome and one due sepsis and disseminated intravascular coagulopathy. Conclusion: Sickle cell disease is hazardous both to the mother and the fetus and is associated with high maternal morbidity and mortality.