Complications in Pregnancy 1 Flashcards
What is the definition of a miscarriage?
Spontaneous loss of pregnancy before 24 weeks gestation
What is the definition of an abortion?
Voluntary termination
What is the incidence of spontaneous miscarriage?
Around 15%
What are the 6 categories of spontaneous miscarriage?
- Threatened
- Inevitable
- Incomplete
- Complete
- Septic
- Missed
What is a threatened miscarriage?
Bleeding from the gravid uterus before 24 weeks gestation when there is a viable fetus and no evidence of cervical dilatation
What is an inevitable miscarriage?
Miscarriage become inevitable if the cervix has already begun to dilate
What is an incomplete miscarriage?
Only partial expulsion of the products of conception
What is a complete miscarriage?
Complete expulsion of the products of conception
What is a septic miscarriage?
Following an incomplete miscarriage there is always a risk of ascending infection into the uterus which can spread throughout the pelvis and this is known as a septic abortion
What is a missed miscarriage?
Missed miscarriage describes a pregnancy in which the fetus has died but the uterus has made no attempt to expel the products of conception
How is an early viable pregnancy imaged?
- Ultrasound scan
* Transvaginal probe into vagina
What are the features of a threatened miscarriage?
- Vaginal bleeding +/- pain
- Viable pregnancy
- Closed cervix on speculum examination
What are the features of an inevitable miscarriage?
- Viable pregnancy
* Open cervix with bleeding that could be heavy +/- clots
What are the features of a missed miscarriage (early foetal demise)?
- No symptoms, or could have bleeding/brown loss vaginally
- Gestational sac seen on scan
- No clear fetus (empty gestational sac) or a fetal pole with no fetal heart seen in the gestational sac
What are the features of an incomplete miscarriage?
- Most of pregnancy expelled out, some products of pregnancy remaining in the uterus
- Open cervix
- Vaginal bleeding (may be heavy)
What are the features of complete miscarriage?
- Passed all products of conception (POC)
- Cervix closed and bleeding has stopped (should ideally have confirmed the POC or should have had a scan previously that confirmed an intrauterine pregnancy)
What are the features of a septic miscarriage?
•More common in cases of an incomplete miscarriage
What are the causes of spontaneous miscarriage?
- Abnormal conceptus
- Uterine abnormality
- Cervical weakness
- Maternal
- Unknown
How might the conceptus be abnormal?
- Chromosomal
- Genetic
- Structural
What are possible uterine abnormalities?
- Congenital - failure of normal fusion of the Mullerian ducts
- Fibroids - in particular submucous fibroids due to distortion of the uterine cavity
What are the 2 types of cervical weakness?
- Primary
* Secondary
How might hormones be involved in miscarriage?
It has been shown that progesterone levels are lower in women with threatened miscarriage who proceed to have inevital abortions compared to the levels in those whose pregnancies continue (corpus lute vital)