Ectopic pregnancy among early abortion patients: does prostaglandin reduce the incidence?

The availability and efficacy of prostaglandin (PG) F2 alpha and E series analogues has prompted their frequent use for pregnancy interruption. In the course of evaluating our experience with PGs for interrupting early first trimester gestations, we became increasingly impressed by the absence of any with extrauterine pregnancy. A review of 63 reports encompassing 2,965 patients whose pregnancies were less than 8 weeks' gestational age dating from the last menstrual period and who were similarly treated yielded only 2 cases of ectopic pregnancy. When compared with the generally accepted ectopic gestation rates of the order of 1 in 200 pregnancies, this frequency of 1 in 1,483 is unexpectedly low. Preselection does not appear to explain this impressive discrepancy. If the observation proves correct, it implies that PGs have some form of therapeutic effect in eradicating extrauterine pregnancy by nonoperative means. The implications are obvious in terms of its potential therapeutic benefits.