Termination of pregnancy with double prostaglandin impact.

With the "double PG impact" (DPGI) technique in 100 sedated first- and second-trimester volunteers, pregnancy was terminated successfully in 99 with a total extraovular PGF2alpha dose of 19.0 +/- 1.5 mg. in 16.9 +/- 0.9 hours. Two thirds of the patients received only the initial dose of 11.6 +/- 0.5 mg. of PG and aborted in 12.9 +/- 0.7 hours without requiring supplemental treatment. Only mild and transient side effects and 14 indicated curettages were recorded. Excepting one gravida (who failed to abort), plasma progesterone in 99 patients decreased at 3 hours after DPGI from 32.5 +/- 1.7 to 22.7 +/- 1.2 ng. per milliliter (P less than 0.001). The rate of progesterone withdrawal and IAT showed a close relationship and the first-trimester patients aborted at a lower progesterone level than the second-trimester patients (P less than 0.001).