ABSTRACT
Eclampsia increases the risk for both mother and foetus. The treatment aims to quickly bring about smooth reduction in blood pressure to levels that are safe for both, but avoiding any sudden drops, that may in themselves cause dizziness or foetal distress. Hence, this study was conducted to compare the efficacy of anti-hypertensive drugs in eclampsia.METHODS80 eclampsia patients were randomized into two groups: one received oral nifedipine and other intra-venous labetalol. Nifedipine group orally received 10 mg initially with repeated doses of 20 mg every 20 minutes up to maximum of 5 doses or until the therapeutic goal was reached. The other group received intravenous labetalol 20 mg initially followed by escalating doses of 40, 80, 80, and then 80 mg every 20 minutes until therapeutic goal was achieved or for a maximum of 5 doses. Once the therapeutic goal was reached, blood pressure was measured every 20 minutes till delivery.RESULTSMean time required to reach therapeutic blood pressure goal in nifedipine, and labetalol group was 45 ± 22.98 and 59.5 ± 25.41 minutes respectively. Total dose requirement was 1.65 ± 0.57 and 2.17 ± 0.74 mg respectively. The differences between two groups were significant. There was difference in urine output between the two groups as well. In the initial two hours, there was increased urine output in nifedipine group though it was statistically not significant. After two hours till 48 hours, this increased urine output in the nifedipine group was significant (p value 0.001).CONCLUSIONSnifedipine achieved the therapeutic blood pressure goal more rapidly than labetalol.