Eclampsia (mother)

Eclampsia is when a woman with pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy condition with high blood pressure, has a seizure. It can happen in pregnancy or after the birth. In trials, injected magnesium lowered the risk of these seizures in pre-eclampsia (Magpie) and stopped repeat seizures better than diazepam or phenytoin (Collaborative Eclampsia Trial).

Condition
In this atlas

Overview

Technical summary

The severe end of the pre-eclampsia records: a seizure in association with pre-eclampsia, which the Collaborative Eclampsia Trial abstract calls an important cause of maternal mortality. MedlinePlus describes it as pre-eclampsia severe enough to affect brain function and cause seizures or a coma, and describes postpartum eclampsia as a seizure in postpartum pre-eclampsia. Sources: MedlinePlus High Blood Pressure in Pregnancy (fetched 2026-10-14; preeclampsia.html redirects to it) and the Collaborative Eclampsia Trial abstract (1995).

Burden

No burden claims are published.

Claims and evidence

No claims are published for this condition yet.

Clinical links

Each link reports what one cited claim says about one population. "Evaluated for" means studied, not shown to work. These links do not show that anything is effective or right for you.

Claim, not a settled fact Treated by: Magnesium sulfate to prevent and treat eclampsia (Claimed to treat, seen from the other side)
Applies to Maternal
- Women with eclampsia, a seizure in association with pre-eclampsia, recruited into an international multicentre randomised trial that compared standard anticonvulsant regimens. 1687 women were recruited; data are available for 1680 (453 allocated magnesium sulphate against 452 allocated diazepam, and 388 allocated magnesium sulphate against 387 allocated phenytoin). Use this context only for the maternal outcomes of these comparisons.
- Not stated in the source
- International; the abstract does not name the countries
- Pregnancy, labour or after birth; the abstract does not say when the seizure occurred
- Gestational age Not reported
- Postnatal age Not reported
Follow-up Follow-up is not given in the abstract.
The Collaborative Eclampsia Trial randomly compared anticonvulsants in 1687 women with eclampsia. Women allocated magnesium sulphate had a 52% lower risk of recurrent convulsions than those allocated diazepam (60 of 453 women, 13.2%, against 126 of 452, 27.9%; 95% CI 64% to 37% reduction), and a 67% lower risk than those allocated phenytoin (22 of 388, 5.7%, against 66 of 387, 17.1%; 95% CI 79% to 47% reduction). Maternal mortality was non-significantly lower with magnesium sulphate in both comparisons. The authors conclude there is compelling evidence in favour of magnesium sulphate, rather than diazepam or phenytoin, for the treatment of eclampsia.
Source problem. A cited source is corrected. Check the sources before relying on this claim.
Limitations. The comparison is magnesium sulphate against diazepam and against phenytoin in women who already had eclampsia; there was no placebo group, and the result is about treating seizures, not preventing them (the Magpie claim is about prevention in pre-eclampsia). The trial dates from 1995. PubMed lists a published erratum (Lancet 1995;346:258) that has no PubMed record and was not read. The abstract also reports outcomes for the babies of the women allocated magnesium sulphate before delivery, which belong to a newborn context and are not summarised here. Only the abstract was read.

Record details

Record id: maternal:eclampsia
Content hash: 4f3377be11072a0118816486eb3df5b858b15ce69fdcec2aa2c55ff47dd9540a