Preeclampsia And Nonsteroidal Drugs for Analgesia: a Randomized Non Inferiority Trial

Recently published clinical guidelines for the care of women with hypertensive disorders recommended that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) should be withheld from patients with hypertension that persists for more than one day postpartum (1). This recommendation is based in data from the general medicine literature, which suggests a role of NSAIDs in precipitating hypertension in non-pregnant adults (2,3). It may also draw from previously published case reports of post-partum hypertension that were thought to be NSAID induced (4). There has been a paucity of data from the obstetric literature to support or rebuff this recommendation. As the opioid crisis worsens in the United States, additional attention and resources have focused on limiting the use of narcotic medications. The effective employment of non-opioid analgesics has been shown to reduce narcotic use (5). Ibuprofen and other NSAIDs are the most effective and most commonly prescribed analgesics for postpartum pain, but clinicians now find themselves stuck between these recommendations and their efforts to limit unnecessary opioid prescriptions.

The investigators propose a randomized controlled non-inferiority trial of women with preeclampsia comparing a postpartum analgesic protocol that includes NSAIDs, to one that excludes them. The central hypothesis is that NSAID use does not worsen hypertensive diseases of pregnancy.

Inclusion criteria

• Women at > 23 weeks gestational age undergoing vaginal or cesarean delivery at Barnes-Jewish Hospital with:
• An antepartum diagnosis of preeclampsia with severe features
• Pre-eclampsia with severe features will be defined as:
• Elevated blood pressure ≥ 160/110, or
• Pre-eclampsia in the setting of thrombocytopenia (platelet count < 100,000), or
• Impaired liver function (AST elevated to twice upper limit of normal), or
• Persistent epigastric pain, or
• Renal insufficiency (serum creatinine of 1.1 mg/dl or doubling of prior value), or
• Pulmonary edema, or
• New onset visual disturbance or headache unresponsive to therapy.

Exclusion criteria

• NSAID allergy
• Allergy to acetaminophen
• Antihypertensive use in this pregnancy prior to 20 weeks gestation
• Chronic kidney disease or Acute kidney injury with Creatine clearance less than 60 mL/min
• Inability to obtain consent
• Opioid abuse disorder
• Peptic ulcer disease.