ABSTRACT
A 24-year-old female presented with blurring of vision, chemosis, protrusion of eyeball, restriction of movements of right eye, numbness over the right side of the face with severe headache, stiffness of neck, and fever of 2 days duration. She gives a history of recent Covid-19 infection 3 weeks back. She was treated symptomatically and recovered fully. On examination, there was proptosis, chemosis, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth nerve palsy on the right side, and nuchal rigidity. She was started on broad spectrum antibiotics, analgesics, anticoagulant, and prophylactic antifungal thinking in line of post-Covid orbital cellulitis or mucormycosis. Her investigations revealed raised total leucocyte count and erythrocyte sedimentation rate with normal ultrasound abdomen and chest X-ray. Blood culture and culture of nasal swab and oral cavity for fungus were sterile. Contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging brain, orbit, and sinus showed proptosis, myofascial edema, superior ophthalmic vein thrombosis, right cavernous sinus and deep cervical vein thrombosis, sphenoid and bilateral ethmoid sinusitis with narrow lumen of the internal jugular vein. She responded very well to the treatment. Her inflammatory parameters came down drastically and clinically, she started opening her eyes and ophthalmoplegia subsided within a week. By the 10th day she was asymptomatic. Repeat MRI showed reduction of proptosis, myofascial edema with partial recanalization of right superior ophthalmic vein, right cavernous sinus, and right deep cervical vein. She was discharged on injectable anticoagulant and antibiotics for another 10 days.
ABSTRACT
Most women who develop eclampsia have preceding preeclampsia (proteinuria and hypertension). This is especially true for otherwise healthy nulliparous women. However, recently, there has been a paradigm shift in this philosophy. There is mounting evidence that preeclampsia can develop even in the absence of proteinuria and hypertension and that eclampsia itself may be the initial manifestation of hypertensive disorder during pregnancy. We report a rare case of a 24-year-old primigravida at 30 weeks of gestation who presented with new-onset generalised tonic-clonic seizures without prior hypertension or proteinuria in her antenatal records. A thorough workup revealed this presentation to be the initial feature of atypical eclampsia. She was managed appropriately and discharged with an excellent outcome. This experience highlights some of the difficulties in managing a case of atypical eclampsia, namely, erratic onset and an unpredictable course, all of which interfere with timely diagnosis and treatment and contribute to maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality.