Introduction:

Maternal mortality is higher in developing countries, due to pregnancy and/or puerperium complications, with hepatic rupture being the most catastrophic complication.

Objective:

To describe the characterization and management of subcapsular hepatic hematoma in patients with preeclampsia with severity criteria and HELLP syndrome.

Methods:

Observational, retrospective and descriptive study performed at the Instituto Nacional Materno Perinatal of Peru between 2003 and 2020. Patients with preeclampsia with severity criteria and HELLP syndrome who presented subcapsular hepatic hematoma participated. Information was collected from the clinical history and the surgical technique was documented. Descriptive statistics were used in the data analysis.

Results:

During the study period, 53 patients with subcapsular liver hematoma were identified out of 342.000 deliveries attended. The most frequent symptoms were upper abdominal pain and headache; 37.7% were pregnant women and 62.3% were postpartum women. Surgical treatment by laparotomy and liver packing was performed in 94.3% of the cases. The most frequent complications were multiple organ failure, hypovolemic shock and acute renal failure. Survival rate was 81%.

Conclusions:

An incidence of 1.65 cases of subcapsular hepatic hematoma x 10.000 deliveries was found, with a mortality of ten cases (19%). Subcapsular liver hematoma should be suspected in pregnant women with preeclampsia with severity criteria who present symptoms of epigastric pain and headache, being more frequent in the postpartum period. Laparotomy and liver packing together with volume replacement contribute to the management of these patients, which should be performed promptly in unstable patients.

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