Placental histopathology of midtrimester termination

Placentas spontaneously passed after second-trimester terminations of pregnancy using either hypertonic sodium chloride or hyperosmolar urea plus prostaglandin F2alpha (PGF2alpha) were examined to determine histologic characteristics. The placentas of hypertonic sodium chloride terminations demonstrated a type of "coagulation necrosis" that has been described previously, while placentas of pregnancies terminated by hyperosmolar urea plus PGF2alpha showed a similar pattern in about one half the cases but a histologic pattern of less severe damage in the remaining cases. The 2 groups showed no significant differences when characteristics such as injection-abortion interval or estimated hypertonicity of the fluid were examined.