Progesterone use after successful treatment of threatened pre-term delivery

Pre-term delivery is the leading cause of neonatal morbidity, mortality and long-term sequels. This is an open label randomised controlled trial with women with confirmed threatened pre-term labour (TPTL) after efficient tocolytic therapy with atosiban. The main outcome measure of this study was the latency period until delivery and secondary outcomes were the number of recurrent episodes of TPTL and fetal and maternal morbidity. Patients were assigned to treatment or control groups using a computer generated randomisation table. The treatment group received 200 mg vaginal progesterone daily until delivery and the control group received no therapy or placebo. The study cohort comprised 52 pregnant women, 26 in each arm, showing similar characteristics; the treatment group had a longer latency period until delivery and this was statistically significant (55 vs 38 days, p = 0.024). This study points to the benefits of the vaginal administration of progesterone, especially in prolonging latency period until delivery.