Surendra Nath Soren, Pravin Kumar Dash
BACKGROUND Termination of pregnancy in second trimester continues to be a challenge in developing countries especially in rural areas. There is an exponential rise in complications of abortion along with advancing gestational age. The search is on for an ideal method of abortion, which is reliable, safe and cheap. This study was conducted in M.K.C.G. Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur, from November 2015 to October 2017 with the aim of finding an effective method to induce second trimester abortion within reasonable time with fewer complications. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 80 patients were studied to compare combination of mifepristone and misoprostol (30 patients) with single drug misoprostol alone (50 patients) for second trimester abortion. The Induction Abortion Interval (IAI), success rate, misoprostol dose requirement and side effects with demographic characteristics were compared between the two groups. RESULTS There was a significant difference in the IAI in both the groups. The mean IAI was 562.218 minutes in study group, whereas in control group, IAI was 922.698 minutes. The success rate (complete abortion) was 92.5% in study group and 68.4% in control group, and this was statistically significant. Misoprostol dose requirement (average) in study group was 1081.48 μg and in control group was 1675.67 μg. More side effects were observed in the control group. CONCLUSION Mifepristone followed by misoprostol was more effective than misoprostol alone as it had a shorter IAI, better success rate, less requirement of misoprostol and fewer side effects.
