A five-year experience with second-trimester induced abortions: no increase in complication rate as compared to the first trimester.

Abstract

Our purpose was to compare the complication rate of first-trimester suction curettage with that of second-trimester dilation-and-evacuation abortions in the same clinical setting. Retrospective analysis (chart review) of the 3772 induced abortions performed between 1986 and 1990 at the Family Planning Clinic of the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Among the 3355 cases with known follow-up (89%), the complication rate was 5.1% for the 2908 suction curettages at < 15 weeks' gestation compared with 2.9% for the 447 dilation-and-evacuation procedures at 15 to 20 weeks' gestation. Serious complications were few and not increased among patients undergoing dilation and evacuation. A careful approach to second-trimester dilation-and-evacuation procedures can make them comparatively as safe as suction curettages, contrary to common belief derived from large surveys done in the late 1970s.