Effectiveness of a single dose of oral misoprostol 600 μg for treatment in early pregnancy failure

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness, side-effects and acceptability of a single dose of oral misoprostol 600 μg for treatment of 1st trimester pregnancy failure. A prospective descriptive study was conducted on pregnant women of < 13 weeks’ gestation, diagnosed as 1st trimester pregnancy failure. Patients were assigned to receive a single dose of misoprostol 600 μg orally and then evaluated 48 h after drug administration for complete abortion. A total of 55 women were recruited to the study. The complete abortion rate was 65.5%. Pain and diarrhoea were the most common side-effects. Acceptability and satisfactory rates were 70.9% and 70.9%, respectively. In conclusion, a single dose of oral misoprostol 600 μg is a fair method for the management of 1st trimester pregnancy failure. Side-effects are tolerable and satisfaction is high. Thus, this method may be used as an alternative treatment.

Keywords::

• Embryonic death
• 1st trimester pregnancy failure
• misoprostol
• oral
• treatment

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the assistance of the medical and nursing staff of the antenatal care unit and gynaecological outpatient unit, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, for their help in recruiting patients for the study.

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

This research was supported by Grant for Development of New Faculty Staff, Chulalongkorn University.