[Is routine microscopy of tissue from induced abortions necessary?]

This study was performed in order to evaluate the importance of routine microscopy of tissue from legal abortions performed before the end of the 12th week of pregnancy. The tissues recovered from 580 abortions were examined carefully macroscopically before they were sent to microscopy. Five hundred and fifty-four samples (95.5%) were judged by macroscopic examination to contain the normal products of pregnancy. These all contained chorionic villi when examined histologically. Macroscopic examination was inconclusive in the remaining 26 samples (4.5%), 22 of these samples proved after all to contain chorionic villi when examined histologically. We conclude that histological examination of tissue from legal abortions is unnecessary in most cases if it is replaced by careful clinical examination of the sample, only to be followed by microscopy if the findings are uncertain.