Unsupervised medical abortion with misoprostol among adolescent—what is the prospect of demedicalise abortion in sub-Saharan Africa?

Objective: To find out clinical presentation and outcome of unsupervised use of misoprostol as abortifacent among adolescents presenting with abortion complications. Methods: Case series of thirty one adolescents that presented with abortion complications following unsupervised use of misoprostol. Results: Over a period of 3 years, 31 adolescents were seen, with median age of 17 years. Twenty nine (93.5%) were unmarried and 22 (71%) were in secondary school. Pregnancy duration was 3months and above in 23 (74.2%) of the patients. The cumulative dose of misoprostol tablet ingested was 2 (400 μg) in 17 (54.8%) of the patients. Twenty three (74.2%) patients presented with incomplete abortion with mild sepsis while the remaining 8 (25.8%) patients were admitted and managed with incomplete abortion with severe sepsis. Treatments offered were manual vacuum aspiration in 23 (74.2%) patients, evacuation of retained product of conception under anaesthesia in 7 (22.6%) patients and 1 (3.2%) patient had laparotomy with uterine repair following inadvertent uterine perforation complicating curettage for incomplete abortion. Complications encountered were anaemia 67.7%, uterine perforation 3.2%, blood transfusion 9.7% and diarrhoea in 8 (25.8%) patients. Conclusion: Demedicalise abortion with misoprostol due to improper dosing protocol may be associated with incomplete abortion and its sequelae in an uninformed adolescent population. Establishment of adolescent friendly medical centre that offers post abortion care will go a long way in alleviating this problem.