Pregnancy interruption by vaginal misoprostol

A total of 132 pregnant women with average gestational age of 14.2 weeks (range 11-22 weeks) undergoing legal abortion volunteered for a trial utilizing vaginal administration of misoprostol. In 106 women a dose of 800 ug was utilized, whilst in 26 women 1,200-1,600 ug were given. Nonsurgical expulsion of the fetus was successful in 117 cases (88.6%). Four cases had to be excluded for various social reasons. A total of 11 did not achieve fetal expulsion within 56 h after application of misoprostol. These cases (11/132; 8.3%) were considered failures. Previous reports in the literature of toxicity trials on animals reporting no fetotoxic nor teratogenic effects of misoprostol at doses up to 10,000 µg/kg body weight seem to be of no validity in the human since we could demonstrate that almost 80% of pregnancies were interrupted at a dose of 10-15 µg/kg body weight. The conclusion is that vaginal administration of this prostaglandin analogue, not requiring cool temperature for storage, is remarkably effective in achieving safe interruption of pregnancy without any significant complications. © 1993 S. Karger AG, Basel.