Pregnancy Failure and Misoprostol — Time for a Change

Pregnancy failure in the first trimester is one of the commonest reasons for women to seek emergency medical services. Indeed, curettage for this indication was responsible for up to three quarters of all nighttime emergency gynecologic interventions in one review.1 The term “pregnancy failure” is, however, not a clinical one but, rather, describes a range of conditions in which an implanted fertilized ovum ceases to develop to the point of viability. Included in the category of early pregnancy failure are spontaneous abortion (both complete, in which all the products of conception have been expelled, and incomplete, in which some products . . .