Comparative study of oral nifedipine versus intravenous labetalol in severe hypertension in pregnancy: A randomized controlled study

Objective: To compare the efficacy of oral nifedipine with intravenous labetalol in the treatment of severe hypertension in pregnancy. Materials and Methods: It was a double-blind, randomized, controlled study conducted in pregnant women with blood pressure 160/110 mm Hg. Total 60 patients were enrolled from October 2016 to September 2017. Patients were randomized to receive nifedipine (10 mg tablet orally up to five doses) and intravenous placebo saline injection or intravenous labetalol injection in doses of 20, 40, 80, 80, and 80 mg and a placebo tablet every 20 minutes until the target blood pressure of 150/100 mmHg was achieved. The primary outcome of the study was time necessary to achieve target blood pressure. Secondary outcome were number of doses required, onset of labour, mode of delivery, adverse maternal and neonatal effects, side effect, and perinatal outcome. Results: The time to achieve the blood pressure goal was significantly shorter with nifedipine (mean SD, 34.67 20.297 minutes) than with labetalol (52.00 29.054minutes; P