Thirteen Cases of Pregnancy Termination Using Misoprostol in First and Second Trimester

Won, Y S; Kim, W S; Park, J H; Park, S M; Lee, J R; Hwang, S W; Koh, S K; Cho, S; Im, M H; Lee, W Y

Abstract

Misoprostol is an inexpensive synthetic prostaglandin[PG]E1 analogue [methy1 11, 16-dihydroxy-16 methyl-9 oxoprost-13E-en-1-oate], marketed as an oral tablet, which is stable at room temperature and is available for the prevention and treatment of nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug induced gastric and duodenal ulcers. Intravaginal as well as oral administrations of misoprostol have been shown to effect cervical ripening and induction of labor. Our study reveals that the use of intravaginal misoprostol 800 g for medical abortion is at least as effective as more infectious, risky laminaria and metreurynter and is a promising method for medical abortion. Based on our study, it is tempting to conclude that misoprostol is as safe as other abortifacients, but the number of patients was too small to establish safety conclusively. Future studies should further clarify improved dosing regimens, efficacy and safety. Lastly, another problem is the potential of misoprostol to be used as an illicit first or second trimester abortifacient. Physicians should be worry about patient initiated requests for the drug and close monitoring should be considered if misuse of misoprostol becomes a problems.