Sublingual misoprostol: a better choice for cervical priming before manual vacuum aspiration

Misoprostol is effective for cervical priming before manual vacuum aspiration (MVA). Aim of study was to determine whether sublingual misoprostol with a shorter interval of 2 hours before MVA would be as effective as its standard vaginal administration.

This randomized control trial included 82 women randomly assigned to receive 400 mcg of misoprostol, either sublingually or vaginally. MVA was performed 2 hours and 3 hours after in sublingual and vaginal group, respectively.

Cervical dilatation of 8 mm was achieved within 2 hours in sublingual group. Mean time taken for procedure (14.4 ± 5.3: sublingual group and 16.2 ± 5.7: vaginal group), and blood loss was comparable (12.2 ± 9.7 ml in sublingual group and 13.7 ± 8.5 ml in vaginal group).

2 hour of cervical priming with 400 mcg of sublingual misoprostol before MVA was as good as 3 hours with vaginal administration of the same dose.