A comparison of extra-amniotic physiological saline and ethacridine dye instillation for induction of mid-trimester abortion
Gupta, I.; Mahajan, U.
National Medical Journal of India 3(3): 110-112
1990
ISSN/ISBN: 0970-258X PMID: 29843320 Document Number: 361394
In a prospective, randomized study of 209 patients, we induced mid-trimester abortion by instilling either normal saline (105cases) or ethacridine dye (Emcredil®) (104cases) extra-amniotically. The mean induction-abortion interval for saline was 18 hours 25 minutes and for emcredil20 hours 12minutes. For a 'cut-off' time of30 hours there were 9 failures with normal saline and 7 failures with ethacridine but all women eventually aborted without surgical intervention. In the saline group the induction-abortion interval was longer in the more advanced than in the less advanced pregnancies. No difference was observed in bacteriological studies from samples collected before and 24 hours after instillation of the solution. We conclude that normal saline is a cheap, easily available and safe abortifacient.