Extraamniotic intermittent administration of prostaglandin F2 alpha during the first and second trimesters of pregnancy.

Extraamniotic application of prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGF2 alpha) was used for legal abortion in the series of 1012 women. The pregnancies were terminated by abortion between the 6th and 27th weeks of pregnancy. In 86.7% of the cases, intermittent extraamniotic application of PGF2 alpha led to complete or incomplete abortions. Of the 26 failures, nine were caused by technical difficulties. In 17 primigravidae, the cervical canal remained closed. There were no statistically related differences between the different weeks of the pregnancy with regard to success and failure rates. The mean PGF2 alpha dose and abortion time increased significantly (p less than 0.01) with increasing duration of pregnancy. 80% of the patients suffered from undesirable side effects. The morbidity rate for the period up to six weeks following the abortion was 3.2%.