15(S)15 METHYL PGF2α BY INTRAMUSCULAR ROUTE AT TWO HOURLY INTERVAL FOLLOWED BY THREE HOURLY FOR INDUCTION OF SECOND TRIMESTER ABORTION.

A multicentre trial of Prostin 15M in second trimester abortion in 322 patients of whom 115 were primigravidae was conducted during the period of six months. Intramuscular injection of Prostin 15M 250 µg was given two hourly till one centimeter dilatation of the cervix, followed by three hourly injections till abortion. The mean dose of Prostin 15M was 2.3 mg for primigravidae and 2.0 mg for the multigravidae. The mean induction abortion interval was 18.5 hours in primigravidae and 17 hours in multigravidae. Two hundred and seventy-six patients (85.7%) aborted with the treatment. There were 26 failures in primigravidae (22.6%) and 20 failures in the multigravidae (9.6%). Side effects of vomiting and diarrhoea were 3.0 and 4.1 episodes, respectively. In 53 cases where prophylactic antidiarrhoeal drug loperamide and antiemetic emidoxyn were given, the incidence of diarrhoea and vomiting was reduced to 1.6 and 1.7, respectively. There were no serious complications. In 50 cases the blood loss, as measured by alkaline hematin method was 25.4 ml (mean).