An audit of intrauterine device usage and outcome in general practice
Presley, A.P.
Practitioner 224(1348): 1089-1091
1980
ISSN/ISBN: 0032-6518 PMID: 7220438 Document Number: 163358
An audit of IUD usage was conducted to determine whether coils provide safe and effective family planning. 11,000 urban middle and working class patients aged 15 to 40 (parity 0 to 5+) were fitted with IUDs using the fitting method of Newton et al (1972) for the Gravigard contraceptive device. Data were compiled at time of coil fitting (July 1977 to July 1979). There was an increase in demand from 105 coils in the 1st 12 months to 164 coils in the 2nd. There was a small but increasing rate of coil replacements from all-plastic devices to bioactive (copper containing) devices. Gravigard (Cu 7) devices accounted for 88.1% or 237 of the coils fitted, the rest being Lippes Loop (7.5%), a small number of Copper-T and the relatively new Copper 250. There were 9 coil pregnancies during the study period (8 with Gravigard and 1 with Lippes Loop). A formal Pearl index gave an unexpectedly high rate of 4.54 pregnancies/100 women-years. A closer examination of clinical records revealed the presence of a superfecund family (if the pregnancies associated with the superfecund family were eliminated from statistics, the corrected Pearl index would be 2.88). There were 14 expulsions (6.5/100 women-years) and 2 patients experienced serious pelvic infection. It was concluded that in general, the coil method is an acceptable means of birth control.