Patient’s experience with Arabin cervical pessary during pregnancy: a questionnaire survey

Abstract

Objective To investigate women’s experience with the cervical pessary for prevention of preterm birth. Design: Retrospecitve questionnaire study. Setting: Tertiary care hospital in Italy. Population: 166 pregnant women treated with Arabin cervical pessary within one center. Methods: A questionnaire was administered to all women after delivery. Main outcome measures: Data about patient’s experience before the insertion (adequacy of the information received), during treatment (follow-up, impact on daily life, perceived discomfort, side effects) and at the time of removal (pain, patient’s expectation met regarding the treatment) were analysed. Results: Information received before the insertion of Arabin pessary was considered adequate in 163/166 (98.2%). An increase of vaginal discharge was experienced by 70/166 (42.2%) women. Discomfort or other side effects were reported in 13.8% and 16.3% of cases, respectively. Overall, 77% of women reported an improved quality of life and 94% considered the follow-up during pregnancy adequate. Removal was moderately painful for 58/166 (35%) of women. Patient’s expectations regarding the treatment were exceeded in the majority of cases (75.3%). In a final step, we compared our results to previous studies suggesting that clinical experience of the health care specialists in charge may explain why the discrepancy of results. Conclusion: Although some trials report high rates of non-compliant patients, this could not be confirmed by our study. In contrast, most women reported a positive experience and were motivated to continue the treatment when they were continuously followed by experienced clinicians.