Title: Morbidity and mortality from second trimester abortion: a decade's perspective.

POPLINE Document Number: 797296

Author(s):

Cates W Jr
Grimes DA

Source citation:

[Unpublished] 1979 Sep 28. Presented at the Conference on Second Trimester Abortion: Perspectives after a Decade of Experience, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, September 28, 1979. 21 p.

Abstract:

This is a review of the data on morbidity and mortality resulting from 2nd-trimester abortion methods used over the past decade. Methodological considerations involved in evaluating the safety of various abortion methods are mentioned. Descriptive, analytic, and experimental approaches are possible. The authors feel that observational studies, repeated in different places and analyzed with proper statistical techniques, are the most useful approach. The largest comparative studies involving 2nd-trimester methods are cited. All 6 comparative studies carried out in the U.S. which have compared dilatation and evacuation ( D & E) with intraamniotic abortifacients have found the D & E procedures to have lower complication rates. Generally, prostaglandins are found to be faster than saline; prostaglandins, however, cause more minor complications and they can result in a live-born fetus. Combinations of abortifacient agents are now in use. The incidence of abortion-related deaths is decreasing, probably due to the increased availability of legal abortion. This decline is attributed to the trend to earlier abortions, to increasing experience among physicians, and to increasing use of the safer techniques, e.g., curettage. Mortality rates connected with D & E and saline procedures have decreased constantly. Both of these methods and prostaglandins have lower mortality risks than hysterotomy and hysterectomy.

Keywords:

Evaluation
United States
Abortion
Pregnancy, Second Trimester
Mortality
Curettage
Prostaglandins
Hysterectomy
Hysterotomy
North America
Americas
Developed Countries
Fertility Control, Postconception
Family Planning
Pregnancy
Reproduction
Population Dynamics
Demographic Factors
Population
Obstetrical Surgery
Surgery
Treatment
Endocrine System
Physiology
Biology
Gynecologic Surgery
Urogenital Surgery