Discussion
The most common cause of postpartum preeclampsia is presence of
gestational hypertension or preeclampsia during the pregnancy. Other
causes include volume overload with intravenous fluids at the time of
delivery, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for pain leading to
water retention and use of uterine atony drugs like ergotamine (8).
Therefore, injudicious use of these drugs should be prevented.
Preeclampsia can occur in the postpartum period with one-third of them
developing eclampsia especially 48 hours after the delivery (9).
Untreated postpartum preeclampsia, can lead to eclampsia, intracranial
hemorrhage and reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome (8). The
management of postpartum preeclampsia includes avoidance of
non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and use of selected
anti-hypertensives like calcium channel blockers (8) and furosemide
(10).