In 14 legal first trimester abortions, vacuum aspiration was preceded by dilatation of the cervical canal by laminaria tent for 16-20 h. Biopsy specimens obtained from the cervix before insertion and before removal of the laminaria tent were analyzed for biochemical changes in cervical connective tissue. Pretreatment with laminaria tents resulted in a decrease of the total collagen concentration and of the collagenolytic activity, though the differences were without statistical significance. Both these findings and those concerning the subfractions of the hydroxyproline concentration suggest that pretreatment with laminaria induces a certain degree of softening of the cervix, similar to that reported after intracervical application of PGE2 gel.
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Jonasson et al. (1989) studied this question.
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