Efficacy of Single Dose of Mifepristone Combined with Two Doses of Misoprostol in Early Medical Abortions

Abstract

Objective To study the efficacy of single dose of mifepristone and two doses of misoprostol in women undergoing early medical abortion (EMA) up to 9 weeks of gestation. Methods An audit was performed on a retrospective data analysis of 162 women who underwent an early medical abortion in Southampton U.K. Relevant data on completeness of abortion and other details were analyzed. Results Majority of the women (67%) aged 20-30 years old, 22% were between 30 and 40 years old and 1% were above 40 years old when they came for abortion. About 94.5% women had complete abortion following the use of single dose mifepristone combined with two doses of misoprostol, 4.9% had an incomplete abortion and 0.6% had failure of the procedure. These figures had significantly improved over the results of similar audit in 2005 with single dose of misoprostol to women below 7 weeks of pregnancy. The results in this audit were 82.1% complete abortion, 7.2% incomplete abortion and 0.7% failed procedure. Conclusion Mifepristone in combination with two doses of misoprostol appears to be more effective in all cases of early medical abortion when compared with single dose of misoprostol for termination below 49 d (7 weeks) and two doses of misoprostol between 49 d and 63 d (7-9 weeks) of pregnancy.