Complication of hypertonic saline induction of abortion
Dominguez de Villota, E.
Heart and Lung the Journal of Critical Care 2(1): 116-121
1973
ISSN/ISBN: 0147-9563 PMID: 4488775 Document Number: 62286
Case report of a healthy 15-year old female with an 18-week pregnancy who underwent a therapeutic abortion induced by intraamniotic injection of hypertonic saline. She suffered the most dangerous of the complications reported after hypertonic saline-induced abortion: an acute hypernatremic state. Marked shifts of the body fluids were triggered by the infusion of hypertonic saline, which rapidly gained access to the maternal circulation. Systemic injury and especially cerbral edema, pulmonary edema, and renal failure followed. Management was supportive of cerebral, cardiopulmonary, and renal function, and the patient recovered.