Surgical termination of pregnancy as a cause of rhesus sensitization.

The immunizing effects of spontaneous or induced abortions when there is foetal-maternal blood-group incompatibility are well known (Levine, 1943; Sauer and Kulich, 1964). Though there are a large number of reports of foetal erythrocytes in the maternal circulation after surgical intervention in full-term pregnancies (Goodall et al., 1958; Zipursky et al., 1959; Kleihauer et al., 1957; Apley et al., 1961 ; Durkin and Finn, 1961 ; Finn et al., 1963 ; Brown, 1963 ; Freese and Titel, 1963; Keenan and Pearse, 1963), there are few reports of findings during termination of pregnancy in its early stages. We have therefore investigated this problem.