Conditions: Eclampsia
Keywords: Eclampsia
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 1
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This is a double blinded, placebo-controlled trial to determine if IV dexamethasone more quickly than placebo assists resolution of Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRES) encountered in eclamptic patients. All patients regardless of assignment to placebo or steroid will receive standard therapy to include magnesium sulfate, blood pressure medications and diuretics. We hypothesize that the addition of dexamethasone to standard therapy will accelerate CNS recovery more quickly than standard management without dexamethasone.

Detailed description:
30 eclamptic patients who do not require steroids for fetal lung maturation purposes will be randomized to placebo or steroid. This includes patients with eclampsia encountered antepartum prior to 23 weeks gestation, postpartum eclampsia, undelivered patients encountered after 33 weeks gestation who would not be candidates for fetal lung maturation steroids, or patients not eligible for repeat steroid administration in the 23-34 week gestational window. Planned enrollment in this pilot study is up to 30 patients with at least 12 in each group.

Arms:
arm 1: Dexamethasone 12 mg, 2 doses, 12 hours apart. arm 2: Placebo, 2 doses, 12 hours apart

Interventions: intervention 1: Dexamethasone
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Intravenous Dexamethasone 12 mg, 2 doses, 12 hours apart

Protocol document: