Pelvic inflammatory disease and intrauterine devices: prophylactic antibiotics to reduce febrile complications

Abstract

In the present study, we tried to determine whether IUD insertion related PID and febrile complications could be prevented by prophylactic use of antibiotics. We studied 300 patients who were admitted to our family planning clinic for IUD contraception. Of these, 150 patients received prophylactic Doxycycline (group 1) and the second 150 received no therapy (group 2). Five cases experienced fever with or without leucocytosis and none required hospitalization. PID was observed in one woman in each group. Positive culture (gonorrhea) was obtained in one woman who was then treated by relevant antibiotics; the other woman required hospitalization for two days. The overall infection rates for group 1 and 2 were 2.1% and 2.9%, respectively and this difference was not significant. The incidence of PID infection and febrile complications was found to be very low for both groups when compared to other studies, suggesting that aseptic conditions with proper insertion reduce the risk of infection.