The intensive care of perinatal risk in pregnant diabetics (136 cases): A new therapeutic scheme for the best control of maternal disease.

Abstract

k Fifty years have elapsed since the discovery of insulin; however, pregnancy is still far from being sufficiently safe in diabetic women. The most convincing proof is given by the high perinatal mortality ranging from 10 to 15% in specialized departments [16], which would be even higher if therapeutic abortion was not performed in numerous cases of severe maternal disease [3, 11, 23], On the other hand, as far as the mother is concerned, insulin therapy has deeply changed the prognosis of pregnant diabetic patients compared with the preinsulin era. However, severe complications such as toxemia, urinary tract infections, aggravation of vascular diseases and so forth contribute to maintain the death rate at about 1% [16, 23],