Changing the Landscape of Early Pregnancy Loss Care

Abstract

Benson and colleagues 1 report the results of a well-designed, retrospective cohort study using a national database of patients who underwent management of early pregnancy loss using medication.Early pregnancy loss is a common occurrence, affecting more than 1 million people in the US annually. 2 Management strategies include medication management to effect expulsion of the pregnancy from the uterus, procedural management that removes the pregnancy using aspiration, or expectant management eventually resulting in spontaneous passage of the pregnancy from the uterus. The management choice for patients relies on a combination of clinical factors, patient preferences, and resource availability. Benson and colleagues 1 compared 2 strategies of medication management: the use of the prostaglandin analog misoprostol alone, which induces uterine cramping and expulsion of the pregnancy, or the use of misoprostol with mifepristone pretreatment.