Effectiveness of the Combined Therapy of intra-vaginal Misoprostol and intra-Cervical Foley Catheter for Second Trimester Pregnancy Termination – A comparative study

Abstract

The objective of this study is to compare the success of combined Foley’s catheter with vaginal misoprostol versus vaginal misoprostol only for second trimester termination of pregnancy.
Methods: This Randomized Controlled Trial was conducted in Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Combined Military Hospital, Muzaffarabad. A total of 210 (105 in each group) women of age from 18 to 45 years undergoing 2nd trimester termination of
pregnancy. In Group A, women were administered 400µg misoprostol intra-vaginally along with inserting intra-cervical Foley’s catheter (number 16 FrCh) inflated with 50 ml normal saline. Then 400 µg misoprostol (maximum 5 doses) were repeated four hourly
until termination of pregnancy. In Group B, misoprostol tablet (400µg) four hourly intra- vaginally (max 5 doses) was given until termination. All the women were followed up till expulsion of fetus.
Results: In this study, success (in terms of complete expulsion of fetus within 24 hours of treatment) was seen in 95 (90.48%) women in group A (combined Foley’s catheter with vaginal misoprostol) and 79 (75.24%) women in group B (vaginal misoprostol only) with p-value of 0.0034.

Conclusion: This study concluded that success of combined Foley’s catheter with vaginal misoprostol for second trimester termination of pregnancy is better as compared to vaginal misoprostol.