Efficacy and acceptability of medical abortion with mifepristone and misoprostol in early pregnancy

Authors : Sudip Mukhopadhyay, Pallab Kumar Mistri

DOI : 10.18231/j.ijogr.2020.007

Volume : 7

Issue : 1

Year : 2020

Page No : 33-38

Introduction: In many countries including India, the only method for termination of early pregnancy
has, until recently been surgical namely vacuum aspiration. However, with the medical method, general
anesthesia and surgery together with the potential complications related to their use can be avoided. To
present the new procedure as an alternative to the surgical method, health care providers need to know
its user potential. Valuable opinion for further development of the method can also be obtained from the
opinion of women who have undergone the procedure. The success rate of medical abortion in the current
study is 90.32%. This can be further increased with either higher dose of misoprostol, or with sublingual
misoprostol or any of the previous routes with further follow up with misoprostol administration.
Materials and Methods: This prospective observational follow up study was conducted in a tertiary care
hospital in large urban area, where back up facilities are easily available and of reasonably good quality.
This study was conducted in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, I.P.G.M.E & R, Kolkata from
1st June 2010 to 31st May 2011. for the study, A group of 80 early pregnancy abortion seekers ( 7weeks
of gestation) who attended Out Patient Clinic / Medical Termination clinic of I.P.G.M.E & R / S.S.K.M
Hospital, Kolkata were taken. The sample was designed according to the following mentioned inclusion
and exclusion criteria. All those patients, who attended Out Patient Clinic of Department of Obstetrics &
Gynaecology and satisfied the following selection criteria, were included in the study.
Results: Women who undergo medical abortion experience much more bleeding either in amount or in
duration than do surgical patients. Since women’s expectations may significantly affect their comfort and
satisfaction with a method, medical abortion patients must receive appropriate counseling to prepare them
for the method’s potential side effects and to judge correctly when an unscheduled visit to the clinic is
necessary. Acceptability of low dose mifepristone – misoprostol regimen in the population studied is quite
high and women having past experience of surgical abortion have a preference towards surgical abortion.
Conclusion: Nevertheless medical abortion is a revolutionary technique and our study results indicate that
mifepristone-misoprostol medical abortion can complement available surgical services and help meet the
long standing need for safe abortion.

Keywords: Medical abortion, Mifepristone, Misoprostol methods of abortion


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