AT THE PREGNANCY MEETING
LAS VEGAS (FRONTLINE MEDICAL NEWS) – Puerperal NSAID treatment appeared safe for women with severe preeclampsia and hypertension postpartum in a single-center, retrospective analysis with 324 women.
Given that an opioid is generally the alternative to analgesia with a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, these new data help refute a recent call to limit puerperal NSAID use, Oscar A. Viteri, MD , said at the annual Pregnancy Meeting sponsored by the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
He framed the analysis he presented as a direct reply to a section in the 2013 statement from the Task Force on Hypertension in Pregnancy of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that says “health care providers are reminded of the contribution of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents to increased blood pressure. It is suggested that these commonly used postpartum pain relief agents be replaced by other analgesics in women with hypertension that persists more than 1 day postpartum.”
Given the apparent safety of NSAIDs in this new analysis, their safety for nursing women, and concerns about opiates, it makes sense to defer any recommendations about avoiding NSAIDs in women with hypertension postpartum until their harm is proven in a adequately powered randomized trial, said Dr. Viteri, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at the University of Texas, Houston. “Opiates are a public health problem,” he stressed.
His analysis used data collected from all women who delivered at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston during 2013-2015. In that group he identified 399 mothers with preeclampsia with severe features that had been diagnosed prior to delivery, and among them 324 mothers had hypertension (a systolic blood pressure of at least 140 mm Hg, a diastolic pressure of at least 90 mm Hg, or both) at or after 24 hours following delivery. Within this subgroup of 324 mothers, 243 (75%) received puerperal NSAID treatment and 81 women (25%) did not. Dr. Viteri highlighted that three-quarters of the women in the study subgroup had received NSAIDs “despite” the 2013 Task Force recommendation.
“Many units” continue to use puerperal NSAIDs in women with hypertension postpartum, commented Mary E. D’Alton, MD , professor and chair of ob.gyn. at Columbia University, New York.
The 324 women in the study averaged about 30 years old, nearly half were African American, and their average body mass index was about 37 kg/m2.
Dr. Viteri defined persistent hypertension in these women as a systolic blood pressure of at least 150 mm Hg, a diastolic pressure of at least 100 mm Hg, or both measured after delivery at least twice at an interval of at least 4 hours. This primary endpoint occurred in 70% of the women treated with an NSAID and in 73% of those who received no NSAID, a difference that was not statistically significant after adjustment for laboratory abnormalities, gestational age, and mode of delivery, Dr. Viteri reported . The women who received NSAIDs also showed a numerically lower rate of receiving new or additional antihypertensive drugs of 20%, compared with 31% among those not on NSAIDs, a nonsignificant difference.
The analysis also showed no differences between the women on NSAIDs and those who did not take them for all the other parameters examined, including highest, average, and discharge systolic and diastolic blood pressures. In addition, among the women who received NSAIDs the results showed no differences in blood pressures regardless of whether the women also were receiving antihypertensive treatment with labetalol or nifedipine. This is the largest study yet reported to examine the effect of puerperal NSAID treatment on women with hypertension, and also the first data on the impact of NSAID treatment on blood pressure in women taking various types of antihypertensive drugs, Dr. Viteri noted.
Despite this reassuring data “it is important to be cautious” when using NSAIDs to treat the type of women enrolled in this study, Dr. D’Alton said in an interview. One concern to keep in mind is the risk for renal injury from NSAID use in women with a history of severe hypertension. Although Dr. D’Alton believed that it is not necessary to monitor renal function routinely in hypertensive women receiving puerperal NSAID treatment, the impact of this practice on the kidneys was worth further investigation, she said.
Dr. Viteri and Dr. D’Alton had no disclosures.
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