Recurrent Medical Termination of Pregnancy, Not Always the Same Pathology

Abstract

Objective

Recurrence of termination of pregnancy (TOP) due to fetal or maternal pathology is an uncommon event, and not always related to the same pathology. We aimed to evaluate the indications leading to recurrent TOP and associated risk factors.

Materials and methods

Retrospective study of the recurrent cases of TOP conducted between January 2002 and December 2018.

Results

A recurrence rate of 2.5% was found in a cohort of 693 women submitted to TOP (17/693). Among the paired cases of recurrent TOP, 65% (11/17) were consequent to a different indication, whereas 35% (6/17) were due to the same cause, mainly related to monogenic diseases. TOP related to chromosomopathy was significantly associated with higher maternal and gestational age.

Conclusions

Most of recurrent cases of TOP do not seem related to the same cause. The occurrence of a monogenic disease or polymalformative syndrome should raise the suspicion of recurrence due to the same pathology.

Keywords:

• Therapeutic abortions
• chromosomal aberrations
• cytogenetic abnormalities
• autopsy
• placenta

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. No funding sources supported this investigation.

Authors’ contribution

CR conceived the idea for this research article, recruited the patients and collected the variables. MR performed the statistical analysis and wrote the manuscript. CR supervised the project.