Improving technologies to reduce abortion-related morbidity and mortality

This article reviews the technologies used to diagnose pregnancy and manage abortion in developing countries. The author discusses methods of diagnosing pregnancy-including physical examination, laboratory and home testing, and ultrasound-as well as methods for performing safe abortions. Due to manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) advances, vacuum aspiration has become safer and more feasible in low-resource settings. The discussion of medical abortion includes the advantages and limitations of mifepristone, misoprostol-only regimens, methotrexate, and other methods. The author stresses the importance of post-abortion care and post-abortion contraception and, in the conclusion, identifies six areas in which technology can reduce abortion-related morbidity and mortality: pregnancy prevention, early diagnosis of pregnancy, accurate assessment of gestation, standardization and supply of MVA technology, and simple and affordable regimens for medical abortion. (C) 2004 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.