Early termination of pregnancy: medical induction with prostaglandins versus surgical aspiration under local anesthetic.

Termination of pregnancy at 4-8 weeks gestation in 1085 patients using either local prostaglandin instillation (n = 820) or uterine aspiration under local anesthetic (n = 265) have been analyzed. Morbidity for both methods was similar although the incidence of side-effects (0.4%) and the transfusion rate (0%) were lower after aspiration than the respective rates of 59% and 1.3% after prostaglandin treatment. However the rates of genital tract trauma (0.75%) and uterine sepsis (1.8%) after aspiration were higher than the respective rates of 0.3% and 0.9% after prostaglandin treatment. The major disadvantage of prostaglandin treatment was the rate of re-admission for evacuation (8.5%) compared with (0.9%) after aspiration, although patient acceptability for both techniques was similar. In view of the advantages, more widespread use of both methods of termination is indicated.