Five Year Review Of Complicated Induced Abortions In University Of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City

Abstract

This is a retrospective study of 104 cases of complicated induced abortion, seen at the University of Benin over a 5 year period. One hundred and four cases constituting 3.93% of
gynaecological admissions were studied. This represents 27.4 cases per 1000 live births.
The mean age of patients was 21.37 ± 5.7 years with almost 80% being between 16 and 25 years. About 90% of patients were nulliparae, unmarried and had at the most a secondary school education. Over 70% of the patients had at least a previous abortion. The mean gestational age at abortion was 11.8 ± 4.7 weeks with almost two-thirds of the women having
procured the abortion in the first trimester. Greater than 70% had dilatation and curettage or suction evacuation as the mode of abortion. A ‘doctor’ was the attending abortionist in
a majority of the cases. The major presenting features were
vaginal bleeding, lower abdominal pain and vaginal discharge. The major indications for admission included incomplete abortion and post abortal sepsis. Close to a tenth of cases had
abdominal visceral involvement. All the patients had antibiotic therapy, half had evacuation of retained products of conception, a fifth had laparotomy while about a sixth had blood transfusion. Over 90% of the patients were discharged in stable condition. The case fatality rate was 4%. The major
causes of death were sepsis with visceral injury and acute renal failure.