Missed Miscarriage Runs without Complete Evaluation: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

The causes of missed miscarriage are often unknown. The aim of this study was to know the rate of missed miscarriage and to assess whether the underlying causes are identified at time of termination. This study was a retrospective carried out in Al-Saba’een Hospital – Sana’a during a year (from Jan. 1st to Dec. 31st 2010).
 The hospital records were reviewed for all women admitted with miscarriage. The women with missed miscarriage were identified and their demographic and clinical data were obtained. The histopathological results noted when available. Of the 621 miscarried women, 225 patients were diagnosed as having missed miscarriage giving the rate of 36.2% of the overall miscarriages. Only 17.3% of these cases the underlying etiologies were diagnosed whereas in the remaining 82.7% patients the causes of loss were undetermined (p=0.0002). The histopathological study was performed only in 18.7% of patients.We concluded that missed miscarriage more frequently runs without complete evaluation of the underlying causes. It is a neglected and invisible issue and more efforts are needed to translate the theoretical knowledge into proven practice.