[Epidemiology of abortion. A one-year prospective study]

This study evaluates the epidemiological characteristics of patients attended at the Hospital Central Militar (Service of Obstetrics), who had diagnosis of abortion. The study was prospective and was conducted through one year. There were 316 cases of abortion (12.4%) among 2,550 obstetrical patients. The most frequent type of abortion was the incomplete one (58.6%). Only 38 (12.0%) women had an septic abortion. From an epidemiological point of view, patients with abortion were young (mean age 26.45 +/- 6.49 years); married (87.4%); with mean parity of 2.20 +/- 2.16; 26.3% of them had their first pregnancy and 78.2% had their first abortion. Abortion were more frequent between 9 and 12 weeks of pregnancy. After the 10th week, the D&C had more complications than before. The conclusion from this study is that in this group of population, abortion is not an important problem of health.