Association of Brain Damage with Therapeutic Abortion Induced by Amniotic-fluid Replacement: Report of Two Cases

Recently amniotic-fluid replacement by the intrauterine injec- tion of strongly hypertonic solutions has been used increasingly often to produce therapeutic abortions or to induce labour when the foetus is already known to be dead (Csapo, 1961; Wood, Booth, and Pinkerton, 1962). Few complications of the method have been reported, though it has been tried and dis- carded by other workers because of the risk of intrauterine sepsis (Peel, 1935). Two cases are reported in which wide- spread cerebral infarction occurred after the procedure and in which it was possible that the strongly hypertonic solutions employed were responsible for the brain damage.