Midtrimester pregnancy termination with prostaglandin E2 vaginal suppositories.

One hundred midtrimester pregnancies were randomly selected for elective termination with 20 mg prostaglandin E2 vaginal suppositories. The abortion rate was 93%. There were 66% complete abortions, 27% incomplete abortions and 7% failures. Mean insertion abortion time was 17 hours, 26 minutes. Average dosage was 82 mg. There were no mortalities but a high percentage of side effects, all of which were well tolerated. Two patients were admitted to other hospitals unfamiliar with termination technics, transfused and subjected to dilatations and curettages. There were no long-term sequelae.