Summary

The HELLP (haemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelets) syndrome is believed to be part of the spectrum of pre-eclampsia, which falls within the category of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy. Maternal and fetal complications are more severe in HELLP as opposed to pre-eclampsia alone. We describe a 26-year-old primigravida woman with no medical history who presents with signs of HELLP with marked transaminitis and mild disseminated intravascular coagulation at 35 weeks of gestation who required emergent delivery of the fetus; the patient also sustained acute kidney injury requiring continuous veno-venous hemodiafiltration and a prolonged intensive care unit admission. Remarkably, with supportive care, all laboratory derangements, including renal function, normalised after 4 weeks. We discuss the diagnostic conundrum when faced with the possible diagnosis of HELLP in discriminating from its many imitators in order to assume proper treatment.