Antibiotics for incomplete abortion

Adequate data are not available to answer the question whether use of an antibiotic as a prophylactic is beneficial in women with incomplete abortions. This commentary calls for urgent research in this area.

RHL Commentary by Robert Pattinson

EVIDENCE SUMMARY

This Cochrane Review highlights an area that requires urgent research. The question of whether the use of an antibiotic as a prophylactic is beneficial in women with incomplete abortions cannot be answered because of a lack of adequate research. Only one trial (1), is included in this review as it was the only one that fulfilled the criteria of the reviewers; a second trial (2), was excluded owing to high losses to follow-up in the study. The trial included in the review found no difference in the rates of postabortion infection between those who received routine antibiotic prophylaxis and those who did not.

The methodology was perfectly adequate.

The full RHL commentary also includes sections on:

Relevance
- Magnitude of the problem
- Feasibility of the intervention
- Applicability of the results of the Cochrane Review
- Implementation of the intervention
- Research
References

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This document should be cited as: Robert Pattinson. Antibiotics in incomplete abortion: RHL commentary (last revised: 24 June 2002). The WHO Reproductive Health Library, No 9, Update Software Ltd, Oxford, 2006. www.rhlibrary.com