Arabin cervical pessary to prevent preterm birth in twin pregnancies with short cervix

Abstract

A retrospective study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Arabin cervical pessary in twin pregnancies with cervical length (CL)  <25 mm between 21 and 31 weeks. Forty patients receiving pessary were matched with 40 controls without pessary. They were matched for gestational age (GA) at admission and CL. GA at delivery, delivery before 36, 34 and 32 weeks, latency between detection of short cervix and delivery, and duration of hospital admission were compared between groups. Women with the pessary delivered at higher GA compared to controls (35 vs. 33 weeks, p = 0.02). Cervical pessary significantly reduced the incidence of delivery  <36 and  < 34 weeks (p < 0.05), but not before 32 weeks. Interval between detection of short cervix and delivery was longer in the pessary group and duration of hospital admission was shorter (p = 0.03) compared to women without pessary.

Keywords::

• Cervical pessary
• premature birth
• multiple pregnancies

Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Birgit Arabin for kindly instructing us in the use, clinical application and handling as well as in contraindication of cervical pessaries.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Authors received no funding for this study.