Extraovular prostaglandin F2alpha for early midtrimester abortion

Twenty patients who were 13 to 15 weeks pregnant received extraovular prostaglandin F2-alpha (PGF2a) in dosages of 3 mg. every 1 to 3 hours. Ninety-five per cent of the patients successfully aborted and 30 per cent of the patients had retained placental tissue. The mean abortion time was 17 3/4 hours and the average total dose used was 29.2 mg. The abortion time appeared to decrease with parity and had no relationship to weeks of gestation. Only one patient failed to abort after 31 hours of therapy. She required a curettage and was the only patient to develop a postabortion infection. The technique appears to compare favorably with the results of intra-amniotic PGF2a. Extraovular prostaglandin may therefore be of particular value in inducing abortion in patients who are in the early midtrimester of pregnancy, i.e., when intra-amniotic instillation is technically infeasible.