Intra-abdominal pressure in third trimester pregnancy complicated by acute pancreatitis: an observational study

BACKGROUND: It is known that intra-abdominal hypertension has high morbidity in acute pancreatitis and has detrimental effects on patients. For third trimester pregnancy complicated by acute pancreatitis, the intra-abdominal pressure may have its own characteristic. This article will discuss this clinical scenario. METHODS: This observational study in a cohort group was performed in the surgical intensive care unit of a tertiary hospital. Medical records were reviewed from each acute pancreatitis exactly in third trimester pregnancy. The main statistical methods were Mann–Whitney U test and bivariate Pearson correlation analysis. RESULTS: During the study interval, there were totally 17 pregnancies complicated by acute pancreatitis in the third trimester. All cases with moderate or severe acute pancreatitis had intra-abdominal hypertension of mean value of 16.7 mm Hg (range, 12.9–22.0 mm Hg). The intra-abdominal pressure had significant correlation with APACHE II score (r = 0.7456, p = 0.0006), while a negative correlation was showed with the umbilical artery pH value and with 1-min Apgar score (r = −0.8232, p = 0.0005; r = −0.7465, p = 0.0034; respectively). The intra-abdominal pressure of those with live infants was lower than that of those with dead ones (13.78 ± 2.554 vs. 19.84 ± 1.695, p = 0.0019). CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of intra-abdominal hypertension seems higher in moderate or severe acute pancreatitis in third trimester pregnancy than the non-pregnant cases but there’s no significance in this study. Acute elevated intra-abdominal pressure accounts for great association with mother’s serious scenario and fetal mortality.