Medscape: New study confirms kidney dialysis worsens pregnancy outcomes
UC expert says counseling and a multidisciplinary team are key
Research from New Zealand and Australia using data from more than 1.6 million women shows that women who are pregnant while on dialysis have significantly worse outcomes compared with women who have already received a kidney transplant, or
will eventually start dialysis but had not yet reached that point by the time of their pregnancy.
In a Medscape article on the study, Silvi Shah, MD, of the Division of Nephrology, Kidney CARE Program at the UC College of Medicine said pregnancies in women with kidney disease are high risk.
Silvi Shah, MD, of the Division of Nephrology, Kidney CARE Program, at the UC College of Medicine/Photo/Colleen Kelley/UC Creative + Brand
"Counseling and awareness are most important regarding pregnancy in women with kidney disease since it is a high-risk pregnancy and associated with adverse fetal and maternal outcomes, including a higher risk of cesarean sections, stillbirths, and neonatal mortality," said Shah. "Women should be counseled about this and should be followed in a tertiary center by a multidisciplinary team that includes a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and a neonatologist."
Shah also said the data reported in the study confirm prior reports that the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes increases with worsening kidney function, although pregnancy outcomes in women with kidney transplants are usually better compared with pregnancy outcomes in women with chronic kidney disease stages 3-5
Lead image: Suhyeon Choi/Unsplash
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