Obstetrics and gynecology
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Obstetrics and gynecology · Oct 1978
World Health Organization studies of prostaglandins versus saline as abortifacients. A reappraisal.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Task Force on the Use of Prostaglandins for the Regulation of Fertility has sponsored a series of randomized clinical trials and case-series investigations to assess the effectiveness and safety of prostaglandins as abortifacients. Our reanalysis of the WHO studies found the prostaglandins to be faster and more hazardour than hypertonic saline as intraamniotic abortifacients. ⋯ For gestations of greater than or equal to 17 weeks, the occurrence of live births in prostaglandin-induced abortions has produced serious legal and ethical problems in the United States. Until the effectiveness and safety of other prostaglandins regimen approach that of D&E, we feel that D&E should be the index of comparison against which newer methods of inducing abortion are tested.