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Home › Articles › Pregnancy › Surviving the Syndrome

Surviving the Syndrome

Rare Condition, HELLP, Requires Fast Treatment

By Jenn Director Knudsen

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Risk Factors and Signs
More often than not, HELLP is a complication of the third trimester that strikes Caucasian women older than 25 who have had multiple pregnancies, says Dr. Kathleen Bradley, a high-risk obstetrician in private practice in Tarzana, Calif., who routinely treats women with HELLP.

She adds that women at risk also have a history of the following: an autoimmune disease, such as lupus; high blood pressure, either prior to or during early pregnancy; liver disease; or a family member who had HELLP or preeclampsia, a more common condition of pregnancy that is characterized by high blood pressure, abnormal swelling in the face and hands and protein in the urine.

But Dr. Bradley is quick to stress that slightly elevated blood pressure, heartburn and some swelling are normal conditions late in pregnancy. Women with these symptoms should not worry that they have HELLP.

HELLP, Dr. Bradley says, is very rare. In fact, only up to 10 percent of pregnant women will develop preeclampsia, and of those, between 2 percent and 12 percent get HELLP.

"If (women) are not treated or diagnosed, up to 100 percent could die," Dr. Bradley says, citing the Maternal-Fetal Medicine textbook. "Of those that are diagnosed and treated in a timely fashion, there is minimal mortality for the mother – virtually zero."

Once the symptoms are there, quick diagnosis and treatment are essential, says Dr. Bradley, who is affiliated with nine L.A.-area hospitals and is an associate fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).

"It is indeed life threatening, and its course can only be ultimately mitigated by delivery of the mother," says Dr. Ricard Silver, chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Evanston Northwestern Healthcare in Evanston, Ill. Dr. Bradley clarifies that in some cases immediate delivery can be postponed while expectant mothers receive monitoring and the unborn baby receives steroids to further develop its lungs before birth.


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