Early termination of pregnancy: a comparative study of intrauterine prostaglandin F2alpha and vacuum aspiration.

The relative safety and effectiveness of vacuum aspiration and the intrauterine administration of 5 mg PGF2alpha for terminating pregnancies within two weeks of a missed menstrual period were evaluated in a study where subjects were randomly assigned to procedures; 100 patients were aborted with vacuum aspiration and 100 patients were aborted with PGF2alpha. All PGF2alpha-treated patients were premedicated with meperidine, diazepam and atropine. Complications were infrequent with either of the procedures. Vomiting occurred more frequently during the PGF procedure (30.0%) than during the vaccum aspiration procedure (9.0%). The intrauterine instillation of PGF2alpha successfully terminated all pregnancies. One patient continued to be pregnant after the vacuum aspiration procedure. Based on the results of this study both study procedures appeared to be safe and effective for terminating early first trimester pregnancies.