Demographic and clinical profile of patients with complicated unsafe abortion.

OBJECTIVE To describe the demographic and clinical profile of patients admitted as a result of complicated unsafe abortion. DESIGN A case series. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY The study was carried out in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Jinnah Hospital, Lahore from August 2001 to July 2002. PATIENTS AND METHODS Patients admitted with complicated unsafe abortion were evaluated regarding age, parity, marital and educational status, indication for abortion, method used, qualification of abortion providers, contraceptive usage, complications and death rate in abortion seekers. Descriptive statistics was used for describing variables. RESULTS Fiftynine patients were admitted with complicated unsafe abortion. The mean age was 29 years, 95% were married and multiparous, 40% had secondary and higher education, 85% approached unqualified abortion providers who used instrumentation in more than 40% of cases for termination of pregnancy resulting in visceral trauma. More than 50% were using contraception and 5% died due to postabortion complications. CONCLUSION Unsafe abortion is a major health problem. The associated morbidity is much higher than mortality. This study focus on the need of postabortion care and easy accessibility to contraception to improve quality of health.