Abruptio Placentae

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be as a result of fetal jeopardy or death. A patient may also experience pain in the abdomen, pallor and back pains.

Causes

Abruptio placentae has been associated with several risk factors. However, the most closely linked to the condition include cigarette smoking which increases a patient’s overall risk to the condition, cocaine abuse which increases the hypertension and levels of catecholamines in patients is suspected to be responsible for a vasospasm in the uterine blood vessels which may lead to placental abruption. This hypothesis has however not been definitely proven.

Another common cause is trauma, which may be caused by domestic assault or abuse, both of which often go underreported and motor vehicle accidents which is caused by belting the lower seat belt across the mid abdomen, where the fetus is located, instead of extending it across the abdomen. Other risk factors are previous placental abruption, maternal age of above 35 years, low socioeconomic status, ...

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blood for a few days.

Pathophysiology

Hypertension, trauma or coagulopathy causes avulsion of anchoring villi in the placenta from the lower uterine segment that is expanding, which causes bleeding into the decidua basalis. This pushes the placenta from the uterus and causes further bleeding. Women may present abdominal or back pain, vaginal bleeding, fetal distress, abnormal or premature contractions or death.

Treatment

Suspicion of placental abruption in most cases occurs on realization of localized abdominal pain which may or may not be accompanied by vaginal bleeding. A rising fundus may indicate bleeding, thus it has to be monitored. Though not diagnostic for ...

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