SUMMARYThis is a retrospective study of 104 cases of complicated induced abortion, seen at the University of Benin over a 5 year period. One hundred and four cases constituting 3.93% of gynaecological admissions were studied. This represents 27.4 cases per 1000 live births.The mean age of patients was 21.37 ± 5.7 years with almost 80% being between 16 and 25 years. About 90% of patients were nulliparae, unmarried and had at the most a secondary school education. Over 70% of the patients had at least a previous abortion.The mean gestational age at abortion was 11.8 ± 4.7 weeks with almost two-thirds of the women having procured the abortion in the first trimester.Greater than 70% had dilatation and curettage or suction evacuation as the mode of abortion. A 'doctor' was the attending abortionist in a majority of the cases.The major presenting features were vaginal bleeding, lower abdominal pain and vaginal discharge.The major indications for admission included incomplete abortion and post abortal sepsis. Close to a tenth of cases had abdominal visceral involvement. All the patients had antibiotic therapy, half had evacuation of retained products of conception, a fifth had laparotomy while about a sixth had blood transfusion.Over 90% of the patients were discharged in stable condition. The case fatality rate was 4%. The major causes of death were sepsis with visceral injury and acute renal failure.

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