Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

2,665 Cases of Abortion

1950; BMJ; Volume: 2; Issue: 4671 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1136/bmj.2.4671.123

0959-8138

Alexandra Davis,

Reproductive Health and Technologies

This review is based on a series of consecutive cases of abortion under my care at St. Giles' and Dulwich Hospitals, London.The two hospitals are relatively closely situated in a working-class suburb, with approximately the same number of gynaecological beds, under the same consultative direction.They therefore offer excellent opportunity for comparison of different methods of treatment, for these can be carried out under fairly comparable conditions.During the past 15 years (with the exception of a wartime interval) advantage has been taken of this opportunity to assess the value of varying treatments, and it was the primary object of the present investigation to determine the relative merits of active and passive treatment in cases of incomplete abortion, and to settle, if possible, some of the issues of this perennial source of argument.A second object was to compare the potency (if any) of different chemotherapeutic agents in infected cases.For these purposes a detailed analysis was made of enough cases to reduce percentage error to a reasonable minimum-the actual number recommended by our statistical adviser was 2,500, and this has been only slightly exceeded, the cases being almost evenly divided between the two hospitals con- cerned.The results of this analysis are given below, and it is suggested that they are definite enough to be of thera- peutic significance.During the course of this investigation various secondary factors-age, parity, morbidity, etc.-had necessarily to be considered.These proved of sufficient interest to merit analysis, and they are classified below under the appropriate headings. AgeThe average age of the patients was 29 years, the youngest being 17 and the oldest 49.This corresponds with the figures given by Gellert (1926), who found the average age between 20 and 30 years; only 3 % of his cases were younger than 20 years.Similarly, the report of the Children's Bureau of New York (1934) gives an average of 25 to 29 years.