Tocolysis in term breech external cephalic version

Abstract

Objectives: To study the effect of ritodrine tocolysis on the success of external cephalic version (ECV) and to assess the role of ECV in breech presentation at our centre.

Material and methods: A prospective randomized double-blind-controlled trial comparing ritodrine and placebo in ECV of singleton term breech pregnancy at a tertiary hospital.

Results: Among the 60 patients who were recruited, there was a success rate of 36.7%. Ritodrine tocolysis significantly improved the success rate of ECV (50% vs. 23%; P=0.032). There was a marked effect of ritodrine tocolysis on the ECV success in nulliparae (36.4% vs. 13.0%) and multiparae (87.5% vs. 57.1%). External cephalic version has shown to reduce the rate of cesarean section for breech presentation by 33.5% in our unit.

Conclusion: External cephalic version significantly reduced the rate of cesarean section in breech presentation, and ritodrine tocolysis improved the success of ECV and should be offered to both nulliparous and parous women in the case of term breech presentation.