Treatment of Septic Abortion

Abstract

The correct management of patients suffering from septic abortion presents a gynaecological problem which still awaits an agreed solution; the main controversy lies between the interventionist school, who advise immediate evacuation of retained products of conception from the uterus in most cases, and the non-interventionists,who postpone operation until later in the course of the illness and avoid it altogether if they possibly can. Although this problem has been deprived of much of its urgency by the advent of powerful antibiotic drugs which. produce good results when used in conjunction with either form of treatment, it is still desirable to determine which method will the better curtail the patient's illness, with the least possibility of subsequent ill-health and infertility. As a contribution towards this decision, the results of the treatment received by 267 consecutive cases of septic abortion admitted to the West Middlesex Hospital during the five years 1946-50, inclusive, have been analysed and are here presented for consideration.