Post-Partum Hypertension

Working in obstetrics and gynaecology, a common job is to review women after delivery to ensure that they are fit for discharge from hospital to the community. It is not uncommon for patients to be found to be hypertensive following delivery. In the BMJ this week there is a clinical review article on post-partum hypertension which I'll aim to summarise here, mainly focusing on raised BP <6 p="" post-partum.="" weeks="">

The most common cause for hypertension after delivery is due to pregnancy induced hypertension or pre-eclampsia which occurred prior to delivery. Hypertension is common in pregnancy and affects 6-10% of pregnancies. There are certain anti-hypertensives which have been shown to be safe in women who are breast-feeding, including labetalol and enalapril. Women who continue to have raised BP and proteinuria 6 weeks after delivery need referral to a specialist for further investigation. It's important to remind women that if they have had PIH then they are at increased risk of high BP in future pregnancies, particularly if they have had pre-eclampsia. 

Pre-eclampsia, eclampsia or HELLP (haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelets) may present for the first time in the post-natal period. BP usually falls immediately after delivery but then steadily rises and peaks at day 3-6 post-partum as a physiological event. Transient hypertension may occur post-partum in normal pregnancies for reasons such as pain, fluid administration and change in vascular tone resulting in fluid shift into the intra-vascular space. Automated BP cuffs may underestimate BP and readings should be confirmed manually. New onset of pre-eclampsia would involve the patient complaining of symptoms such as headaches, epigastric pain, visual changes or possibly seizures.

Several studies have reported that BP should be expected to normalise within 3-7 days after delivery although this will clearly increase if there has been pre-existing hypertension. NICE recommend checking BP 6 hours after delivery and again at day 5 to identify women with late presentation of pre-eclampsia. Measurement of proteinuria immediately post-partum is not recommended due to the presence of lochia. Any patients who have been discharged to the community and are found to have BP >160/>110 will need re-referred to hospital for assessment and treatment. NICE have created guidelines and a useful flowchart for the safe management of out-patients with hypertension during the first 6 weeks post-partum. After discharge from hospital, BP must be checked at least every other day by the community midwife until targets are met. Data on anti-hypertensives used post-partum is extremely limited and mostly based on expert consensus but treatments should be chosen carefully to reduce risk of transmission to the baby during breastfeeding.

Improving Patient Nutrition and Hydration in Hospital

Patient nutrition and hydration are often overlooked by doctors when patients are admitted acutely to hospital. This has been an established problem for many years despite evidence about the clinical and financial costs of neglecting this area. In a recent study, one in three patients admitted to a care home or hospital were either malnourished or at risk. Patients who are admitted to hospital may be malnourished for many reasons, including poor appetite, swallowing difficulties and reduced cognitive ability. When a patient is admitted to hospital, adequate fluid and nutrition should be addressed. There are many reasons why malnutrition is important. It is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, and a two to three-fold increased risk of post-op complications. It may delay wound healing and puts the patient at increased risk of pressure ulcers and wound infections. Malnutrition also leads to impairment of the body's immune system and will prolong hospital stay by three days on average with a 50% increased readmission rate amongst this group of patients. Dehydration and 'over' hydration are common in the hospital setting but the subsequent morbidity and mortality is rarely recognised. Patients in hospital are on one hand at risk of developing acute kidney injury, whilst on the other hand at risk of acute pulmonary oedema.

NICE recommend that screening for malnutrition is carried out on all hospital in-patients on admission, usually this is carried out in the form of the 'MUST' charts. According to NICE, nutritional support should be considered in the following groups:

• BMI <18 .5="" li="">
• Unintentional weight loss >10% within past 3-6 months
• BMI <20 3-6="" 5="" and="" greater="" in="" li="" loss="" months="" past="" than="" the="" unintentional="" weight="">
• People who have eaten little or nothing for more than 5 days or are likely to eat little or nothing for the next 5 days or longer
• People with poor absorptive capacity, high nutrient losses, or increased nutritional needs from causes such as catabolism

Admission to hospital provides a vital opportunity for intervention, but what can be done? The first step is to identify patients at risk. To achieve this, there needs to be increased recognition and awareness from all staff (medical and nursing). Maximising normal food intake needs to be encouraged. If appetite is reduced, oral nutritional supplement drinks can be used in the short term. Refer the patient to the hospital dietician for assessment. If oral nutrition is inadequate or impossible, enteral tube feeding or IV nutrition need to be considered (although these procedures carry risk - ie. misplaced NG tubes).

With regards to IV fluids, this is often inadequate and from my experience tends to be quite hap-hazard in hospitals. One problem is the lack of routine and careful fluid balance assessment by senior clinicians and the reliance on the most junior doctors with the least experience to carry out this task. Decisions on IV fluids are often left to out of hours, when the doctor on-call doesn't know the patient or their fluid requirements and is asked to 'write up more fluids' without much thought due to time pressure.

Ways in which we can improve our practice in order to benefit our patients include implementing the current NICE guidelines and auditing compliance with them. Senior clinicians and managers also need to share responsibility in this area. A simple measure, such as a ward round checklist could be used to improve fluids and nutrition. Staff should encourage patients to eat and drink, with assistance provided to those who need it. 'Protected meal-times' and red-trays to identify those patients with increased need for help are good ideas. Improving patient education is also an important consideration. So in summary, nutrition and hydration in hospital patients is an important, often neglected area and now is the time to address the problems which I've highlighted. 

Reducing Risk of Stillbirth, Beta Blockers and the Public Enquiry into Stafford Hospital

Last week, following an inquest lasting almost a year, the results of the enquiry into
Stafford Hospital were released and the findings are very serious. The report found that
patients died needlessly due to poor care. The report makes 290 recommendations for 
improvements. In 2007, higher than expected death rates were reported at the hospital,
leading to investigation, and some of the findings were target driven managers, poor 
standards of nursing care, a culture of bullying, complaints being ignored and doctors
continuing to work under these poor conditions without speaking out. It should be noted 
that mortality rates are only one way of looking at how a hospital is performing. Rates
can vary for many other reasons with poor quality healthcare being only one. Nonetheless
the results from the enquiry deserve the high level of publicity which they have received
and should lead to important lessons being learned for other health boards. 

Working in obstetrics and gynaecology at the moment, naturally I've taken more interest
in related articles. There was an interesting one in the BMJ this week about identifying risk
factors for stillbirth. One of the common reasons for patients presenting to the maternity
outpatients department seems to be for ? reduced fetal movements. Fortunately most of the time a CTG 
(cardiotocograph) is reassuring, showing good fetal movements and fetal heart rate, meaning that the patient can be
safely discharged. Fetal stillbirth remains to be one of the few potentially avoidable maternal and child health
complications which hasn't declined in recent years. Patients who present to the out-patients are assessed for their
risk of stillbirth, but perhaps we should be doing more in the community to reduce the risk of stillbirth. Fetal growth
restriction, smoking and obesity are three important risk factors. Smoking in particular is easily modifiable (patients
must be encouraged to stop smoking), and fetal growth restriction should not go unrecognised. Despite this, a recent
population based study has found that in pregnancies ending in stillbirth, unrecognised fetal growth restriction was 
associated with 32% of all deaths. Identifying fetal growth restriction and smoking cessation are therefore important 
goals for antenatal care and could be the key to reducing the rates of stillbirths in Scotland.

Beta blockers have long been know to result in favourable outcomes in heart failure, and a recent study published in 
the BMJ this month has shown that beta blockers exert a class effect with no one particular drug showing favourable 
outcomes. The 'big three' beta blockers investigated were carvedilol, metoprolol and bisoprolol (these ones have the 
strongest evidence base). Recommendations are that unless there are obvious contra-indicationns (eg. asthma), 
stable patients with an ejection fraction of 40% or less should receive one of the drugs, but there is no one drug which
is preferable. Areas which require further study in the future include the global population variations in penetrance of 
beta blockers, and the use of beta blockers in patients with COPD as a co-morbidity (cardioselective vs. 
non-cardioselective agents).