A prospective comparative study on the use of prostaglandin E2 gel (2 mg) and prostaglandin E2 tablet (3 mg) for the induction of labour in primigravid women with unfavorable cervices.

Eighty primigravid patients with singleton pregnancies, cephalic presentation and unfavourable cervices (score less than 5) between 37 and 43 weeks gestation were studied prospectively to compare the ripening effect of vaginal PGE2 (3 mg) tablet with that of PGE2 gel (2 mg). Following the use of gel, the final mean cervical score was considerably improved and half of the patients went into spontaneous labour. The requirement for oxytocin augmentation was also reduced. The priming-to-induction and induction-to-delivery intervals were also considerably shortened in gel-treated patients. The proportion of patients delivered by Caesarean section in the gel group was lower than that in the tablet group (30 vs. 15%).

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes