Viera Oroszová, Martin Petrenko
Preterm birth belongs to the most frequent reasons of perinatal mortality and morbidity. The aim of tocolytic therapy is to stop a preterm birth, or possibly to minimize its adverse consequences. But it also has unfavourable effects. β-sympathomimetics are the most frequently used in tocolytic therapy. They are substances affecting β-adrenergic receptors on cell membranes. Through these receptors they influence, besides myometrium, also other cells of smooth muscles, breathing and cardiovascular system. The most frequent unfavourable effects described in relation to taking β-sympathomimetics are cardiac arrhythmia, myocardial ischaemia, pulmonary oedema, hypokaliemia, hypotension, cerebral vasospasm and hyperglycaemia. In the article there are presented two case studies of pulmonary oedema incidence at tocolytic treatment.