The influence of cervical dilatation by laminaria tent and with Hegar dilators on the intrauterine microflora and the rate of postabortal pelvic inflammatory disease.

In a prospective study, 519 women were randomly selected for cervical dilatation by laminaria tents or Hegar dilators before scheduled vacuum aspiration. In other 68 women randomly divided into a laminaria group and a control (Hegar) group, placenta, decidua and blood were separately aspirated from the uterine cavity before the vacuum aspiration and cultured for micro-organisms. The rate of postabortal inflammatory disease (PID) was significantly lower after pretreatment with laminaria tent irrespective of patient's age and parity. However, a higher risk of postabortal PID was found in gestational age of 10-12 weeks than of 5-9 weeks. Previous PID and abortion did not increase the risk of postabortal PID. Vaginal/cervical micro-organisms were, irrespective of method for cervical dilatation, identified in two thirds of the patients.