Efficacy of intracervicovaginal misoprostol in second-trimester pregnancy termination: a comparison between live and dead fetuses

Abstract

Objective: To study the complications and compare the success rate and abortion time between the live and the dead fetuses in second-trimester pregnancy termination with intracervicovaginal misoprostol.

Design: A prospective comparative study.

Subjects and methods: A total of 89 pregnant women between 14 and 28 weeks of gestation with obstetric, medical, or genetic reasons for termination of pregnancy were recruited to receive 200 micrograms misoprostol inserted intracervicovaginally every 12 hours.

Results: The rates of successful abortions within 12, 24 and 48 hours in live fetuses were 15.1%, 54.7% and 92.5%, respectively, while in dead fetuses were 50.0%, 83.3% and 97.2%, respectively. The success rates within 12 and 24 hours in live-fetus group were significantly lower than those of the dead-fetus group 9p = 0.0009 and p = 0.01, respectively). The mean abortion time of the live-fetus group (27.1 hours) was significantly more than that of the dead-fetus group (15 hours, p = 0.001). No serious complications occurred in terms of hemorrhage, febrile morbidity diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.

Conclusions: Intracervicovaginal misoprostol is an effective and safe method for second-trimester pregnancy termination. The success rate is higher and the abortion time is less in dead-fetus pregnancy than those in the live-fetus pregnancy.