Efficacy of methotrexate and misoprostol for early abortion

Background: Medical termination of pregnancy (medical abortion) as an alternative to surgical abortion has many advantages since it does not require anesthetics and there is no risk of cervical laceration or uterine perforation. In the present study, we evaluated the efficacy of methotrexate and intravaginally administered misoprostol for early abortion. Methods: The study population consisted of 32 women seeking abortion of a normal intrauterine pregnancy of 8 weeks or less documented by ultrasound. The dose of methotrexate was 50 mg/m(2) intramuscularly and the dose of misoprostol was 800 mu g intravaginally. The final outcome of treatment was evaluated on day 14 or 16, and an abortion was considered successful if pregnancy was terminated without a surgical procedure. Results: Abortion occurred in only 23 (71.8%) of 32 women. There were 9 failures (28.1%); 3 were ongoing pregnancies (9.3%) and 6 were incomplete abortions (18.7%) requiring suction curettage. After the exclusion of treatment failures, the mean duration of vaginal bleeding was 16.3 +/- 2 days. No serious side effects occurred as a result of methotrexate and misoprostol treatment. Conclusion: The use of methotrexate and intravaginal misoprostol for the termination of pregnancy requires larger studies to determine the safety and efficacy of this medical abortion, a comparison with RU 486 in prospective controlled randomized trials is necessary.