Abortion Technique and Its Relationship to Adverse Physical Effects
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"Pregnancy Termination: Techniques. Risks and Complications and Their Management," Robert Castadot, Fertility and Sterility, 45(1):5-16, January 1986.
- General review of abortion technology.
Abortion Practice, Warren M. Hern (Boulder, CO: Aplengo Graphics, Inc., 1990)
- Ed Note: Although somewhat dated, this still remains the leading text on abortion technique.
"Pregnancy Termination," PG Stubblefield in Obstetrics. Normal & Problem Pregnancies, Third Edition ed. Steven G Gabbe, Jennifer R. Niebel and Joe L Simpson (New York: Churchill Livingston, 1996) 1249-1278
Williams Obstetrics, 20th Edition ed. Cunningham, MacDonald, Gant, Leveno, Gisstrap, Hankins, Clark, (Stamford, CT: Appleton&Lange, 1997) Chapter 26, Abortion pp. 595- 605
"Second-Trimester Abortion by Dilation and Evacuation: An analysis of 11.747 Cases," W.F. Peterson, F.N. Berry, M.R. Grace, C. L. Gulbranson, Obstet Gynecol 62:185, 1983.
- The use of laminaria in second trimester abortion reduced the incidence of cervical laceration. The use of tetracycline before abortion reduced the incidence of fever (38 degrees Centigrade for 2 or more days). The use of vasopressin mixed with lidocaine reduce the incidence of blood loss following abortion.
Induced Abortion, A World Review, C. Tietze, (New York: The Population Council, 1983) 83.
- Blood loss increases when abortions are performed with general anesthesia, particularly when agents that produce uterine relaxation such as halothane are used. Perforation and cervical laceration occur more frequently with general anesthesia than with local anesthesia. The risk of death from anesthesia-related and other causes is two to four times greater with general anesthesia than with local anesthesia.
"Local versus general anesthesia: Which is safer for performing suction abortions?," D. Grimes, K. Schulz, W. Cates, C. Tyler, Am. J. Obstet. Gynecol 135:1030(1979).
- Local anesthesia was associated with elevated rates of febrile and convulsive morbidity while general anesthesia was associated with higher rates of hemorrhage, cervical injury and uterine perforation.
"The Effect of Abortion Method on the Outcome of Subsequent Pregnancy," P.E. Slater, A.M. Davies and S. Harlap, Journal of Reproductive Medicine 26(3): 123-128, March 1981.
- Infants born following a previous induced abortion by dilatation and curettage showed an excess of low birth weight. The greater the degree of dilatation at D&C, the greater damage to the cervix. This in turn produces an increase in low birth weight due to shortened gestation in the next pregnancy. Adverse effects of D&C are applicable only to settings where this procedure is the usual method employed and not to areas where vacuum aspiration is the procedure of choice or where gradual dilatation by use of laminaria is used. If induced abortion is necessary, it should be done as early as possible with the minimum of cervical dilatation.
"Pelvic inflammatory disease following induced first-trimester abortion," Lars Heisterberg, Danish Medical Bulletin 35(1):64-75, February 1988.
- Induced first-trimester abortion is a procedure which removes the conceptus from the uterine cavity before the end of the twelfth gestational week counted from the first day of the last menstrual period... The surgical field, consisting of the vagina, endocervix, and uterine cavity is contaminated because even meticulous surgical scrub cannot sterilize the endocervix. Consequently, postoperative infection must be expected in a number of women. Citing "Effect of preoperative scrub on the bacterial flora of the endocervix and vagina." N.G. Osborne and R.C. Wright, Obstetrics and Gynecology 50:148-151(1977).