Trends in Ectopic Pregnancies in Eastern Saudi Arabia

Background. The objective of this study was to estimate trends in ectopic pregnancies (EP) in a tertiary care center of Eastern Saudi Arabia. Method. Information about patients with ectopic pregnancies who had been admitted to King Fahd Hospital of the University, AlKhobar, between January 2000 and 31 December 2011 was collected from a computerized hospital registry. Age-specific ectopic pregnancy incidence was calculated. The data was analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences), version 14.0 (Chicago, IL, USA). Results. There were 274 EPs during the study period; the yearly incidence in terms of 24,098 deliveries was 1.19%. The average age was 28.99 Å 5.62 years. During a three-year period (2000-2002), the incidence was 0.92%; from 2003 to 2005, the incidence was 1.01%; from 2006 to 2008, the incidence was 1.51%; and from 2009 to 2011, the incidence was 1.35%. Age-adjusted ectopic pregnancy incidence rates steadily increased from 92.23 per 10,000 women years during the period 2000-2002 to 149.408 during the 2006-2008 period; since then, it has declined to 110.313 per 10,000 women years. Conclusions. Our study reveals that the incidence of EP has decreased from what it had been during the mid-2000s but has remained significantly elevated when compared to the early 2000s.