Microbial Isolates in Induced and Spontaneous Abortion

Abstract

A prospective study of patients with induced and spontaneous abortion to compare the microorganisms isolated from their endocervical canals was carried out at Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu Nigeria over an eight year period, January 1997 to December 2004. There were 132 cases of abortion seen during the study period constituted by
70 (53.0%) and 62 (47.0%) cases of induced and spontaneous abortion respectively. Patients with induced abortion were statistically significantly younger than those with spontaneous abortion, with mean ages of 26.2 + 6.7 and 29.1 + 6.1 years respectively (t = 2.6364 p < 0.01). There was no significant difference between gestational ages at which both induced and
spontaneous abortion took place; 14.9 + 4.8 and 14.5 + 6.6 wks respectively (X2 = 0.4013 p<0.50). There were 9 maternal deaths among the patients with induced abortion while there was none in the spontaneous group. There was no microbial isolate in 40 percent and 80.6 percent of induced and spontaneous abortions respectively. This was statistically significant (X2 = 14.73 p < 0.0001). Escherichia coli, Klebsiella species and Staphylococcus aureus were the predominant organisms isolated from the induced abortion while Staphylococcus aureus was the only predominant organisms from the spontaneous abortion cases. Induced abortion
is significantly more complicated by microbial organisms than spontaneous abortion with possible long term adverse effects, which could be prevented by introducing measures that will reduce unsafely induced abortion.

Key words: Endocervix, Microbial, Prospective, Unsafe abortion.