Ectopic pregnancy-analysis of three hundred twenty-two consecutive cases, 1935-1954.

Abstract

Factors determining the incidence and course of ectopic pregnancy were studied by comparing 161 cases encountered during the 10-year period 1935-1944 with 161 encountered during the period 1945-1954. The initial complaint was abdominal pain in 38.5% and vaginal bleeding in 36.4% of the entire group; in 24 % the initial complaint was simultaneous abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding. False-positive and false-negative diagnoses were frequent. Negative results from pregnancy tests were of no value in eliminating the possibility of ectopic pregnancy, and positive results did little to confirm it. Dilatation and curettage, had this procedure been performed for diagnostic purposes in all patients suspected of ectopic pregnancy, would have interrupted 18 intrauterine pregnancies that later reached term. Comparing the experience of the first with the second 10-year period showed that during the latter the surgery was in general more conservative, that blood transfusions were used more liberally, and that more women had subsequent pregnancies. No maternal deaths occurred in the last 12 years of the study.