[Transabdominal chorionic villi aspiration in the 1st and 2d trimester in 120 cases with reference to placental location]

At the Gynecological Clinic of the Klinikum Ludwigshafen prenatal transabdominal diagnostic aspiration of villi was performed in 120 cases in the first and second trimesters between October 1986 and April 1988. The puncture was performed using a cannula system comprising a guide and an aspiration needle. The ultrasonographically controlled removal technique is described with special consideration of the procedure in cases with placental insertion in the posterior wall. Successful tissue removal (at least 5 mg of tissue) was achieved in 97.5% of the cases. Cytogenetic, biochemical, and molecular biologic studies were performed. The most frequent indication was to detect chromosome disorders in older mothers (74.2%). Such disorders were diagnosed in 4.2% of all cases and pregnancy was terminated in seven of them; the indications were aneuploidies, metabolic disease, or severe developmental anomalies detected by ultrasonography in normal karyotypes. In the remaining 113 pregnancies one miscarriage was seen nine weeks after aspiration of villi. On the basis of these results the abortion risk following transabdominal chorionic biopsy is 0.88% and is thus similar to that following amniocentesis.