VAGINAL MISOPROSTOL FOR LATE FIRST-TRIMESTER ABORTION

A group of 120 women with gestations from 64 to 84 days received 800 m u g of vaginal misoprostol every 24 h for a maximum of three doses wit hout performing postexpulsion systematic preventive curettage. Outcome measures included successful abortion (complete abortion without requ iring a surgical procedure), side effects, and mean time of expulsion and vaginal bleeding. Complete abortion occurred in 104 of 120 (87%, 9 5% CI 79, 92) subjects. The decrease of hemoglobin was statistically s ignificant (p = 0.0001) but clinically unimportant: 12.2 mg/dL (SD 1.1 ) before treatment and 11.6 mg/dL (SD 1.0) after treatment. Statistica lly significant differences were found only between the success rates for white women in comparison with nonwhite women, in which case the s uccess rates were higher for white than for nonwhite women. Vaginal bl eeding lasted 8 +/- 5 days, spotting 4 +/- 3, and total bleeding 12 +/ - 4 days. The acceptable expulsion time, the fact that postabortion sy stematic curettage was not needed, the clinically insignificant hemogl obin loss, and the success rate obtained show that misoprostol adminis tered vaginally may be a valid method for interrupting gestations of 1 0-22 weeks. CONTRACEPTION 1998;57: 329-333 (C) 1998 Elsevier Science I nc. All rights reserved.