Medical abortion at home and at hospital: A trial of efficacy and acceptability

Objectives. - To evaluate the efficacy and the acceptability of medical abortion at home and at hospital. Patients and methods. - From 11 February 2008 to 16 July 2008, 399 patients were included in the study: 173 at home and 226 at hospital. Results. - Efficacy was evaluated for 305 patients because 94 were lost of follow-up (23.6%). Efficacy of medical abortion was 86.7% (124/143) at home and 95.8% (155/162) at hospital. There were one ongoing pregnancy and 25 surgical aspirations (8.6%). The family planning nurse received a phone call from five patients after mifepristone at home (2.9%) and seven patients after mifepristone at hospital (3.1%). Only one patient "at home" had an emergency consultation (0.6%) and nine patients "at hospital" (4%). Ten patients went back to their gynecologist before their appointment for follow-up (2.5%): five "at home" (2.9%) and five "at hospital" (2.2%). Thirteen patients were referred by the private provider to the hospital medical specialist. Acceptability is known for 70.2% of patients: 98% thought that medical abortion at home was acceptable and 92.9% at hospital. Discussion and conclusion. - The failure rate of medical abortion is higher at home and is due to aspirations for incomplete abortion. The procedure at home seems to be more acceptable than at hospital. It will be interesting to realize a prospective randomized study to compare the procedures at home and at hospital. (C) 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.