Early surgical abortion: Safe and effective

ABSTRACT

Objectives To evaluate patients’ characteristics and complications of surgical abortion performed at an early gestation, compared to later gestations.

Methods A total of 4310 women with unintended pregnancies attending the family planning unit of a government maternity hospital in Konya, Turkey, were included retrospectively. Abortions were carried out from 6 weeks’ up to 10 weeks gestation.

Results The gestational age in 62% of the cases was between 6 weeks and 6 weeks + 6 days. Only 8.5% of the 4310 women had used a modern contraceptive method, and 16% had had a surgical abortion for an unplanned pregnancy previously. These women were younger, had more siblings, and a shorter time had elapsed since their last pregnancy when compared to women who never had an abortion. There were four failures (0.09%). The rate of retained products of conception (RPCs) was 1.9% in women aborted between six and six ^{+ 6} weeks’ gestation, and 6.2% (p < 0.001) in those aborted later. Women who had had a surgical abortion previously more often had RPCs than those who never had (16% vs. 1%, respectively, p < 0.001). Of the 151 women with RPCs, 65 (43%) had been using an intrauterine device prior to surgical abortion.

Conclusion Early surgical abortion (at six-six^{+ 6} weeks’ gestation) generates few complications. Delaying surgical abortion until a somewhat later gestation causes complication rates (particularly RPCs) to increase.

KEYWORDS:

• Early surgical abortion
• Retained products of conception
• Contraception

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are indebted to Dr Adnan Tekin and to all physicians and healthcare providers of the Family Planning Unit of Faruk Sukan Hospital for assistance with this study. The statistical analyses of the manuscript were performed by Prof. Dr Said Bodur, head of the Department of Public health, Konya Necmettin Erbakan University. The manuscript was linguistically edited by a native English speaker: Scott B. Evans (Turkiye Klinikleri Publishing Company, Ankara, Turkey).

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and the writing of the paper.