Comparison of two misoprostol regimens for cervical priming before surgical pregnancy termination at 13 to 16 weeks gestations

Medical and Surgical Induced Abortion

“…In the first four weeks of the second trimester termination of pregnancy can reliably be performed as a one stage procedure with D&E performed in one day after adequate cervical priming with misoprostol (Chambers et al, 2011a). As shown in Table 1, the dosage of misoprostol required increases with the gestation.…”

“…At 14-16 weeks an additional third sublingual dose of misoprostol 400 mcg is given 30 minutes after the second sublingual dose, with D&E 3 hours after the last dose. A retrospective study I performed with colleagues (Chambers et al, 2011a) showed that the simple addition of one oral tablet of misoprostol 200 mcg at home 3 hours before admission to the regimen of 2 tablets ½ hourly for two or three doses on admission increased the probability of all women at 13-16 weeks gestation completing a termination of pregnancy in one day with a single D&E procedure to 100%, and with a reduced theatre time, the operators noting operations to be easier to perform with the extra priming from the one oral tablet taken 3 hours before admission. Preparation of the woman in the theatre is as in first trimester up to dilatation of the cervix.…”