Fetal loss following invasive prenatal testing: a comparison of transabdominal chorionic villus sampling, transcervical chorionic villus sampling and amniocentesis

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare transabdominal chorionic villus sampling, transcervical chorionic villus sampling and amniocentesis with respect to their total fetal loss rates. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated procedures of invasive prenatal testing performed during a 14-year period (2001-2014) including 936 amniocentesis procedures and 1051 chorionic villus samplings, of which 405 cases were executed transabdominally and 646 transcervically. Only singleton pregnancies before 24 weeks and 0 days of gestation where the pregnancy outcome was known were included. Fetal loss was defined as an abortion occurring either before 24 weeks and 0 days of gestation or < 2 weeks after the procedure. Results: The total fetal loss rates were determined to be 1.73% for transabdominal chorionic villus sampling, 2.01% for transcervical chorionic villus sampling and 1.18% for amniocentesis. No statistically noticeable differences between the total fetal loss rates of all three procedures were found (P = 0.399). Conclusion: Our study has shown that chorionic villus sampling (either transabdominal or transcervical) and amniocentesis are equal methods for invasive prenatal testing with respect to their abortion risk.