Abstract
In a prospective study, 519 women were randomly selected for cervical dilatation by laminaria tents or Hegar dilators before scheduled vacuum aspiration. In other 68 women randomly divided into a laminaria group and a control (Hegar) group, placenta, decidua and blood were separately aspirated from the uterine cavity before the vacuum aspiration and cultured for micro-organisms. The rate of postabortal pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) was significantly lower after pretreatment with laminaria tent irrespective of patient's age and parity. However, a higher risk of postabortal PID was found in gestational age of 10–12 weeks than of 5–9 weeks. Previous PID and abortion did not increase the risk of postabortal PID. Vaginalkervical micro-organisms were, irrespective of method for cervical dilatation, identified in two thirds of the patients.