Cervical suture in Scotland: strengths and weaknesses in the use of routine clinical summaries.

National routinely collected hospital data for 12 months from June 1976 were used to provide information on patients with cervical suture during pregnancy. The past obstetric history and outcome of the pregnancy after suture was contrasted with the experience of all pregnant women during the same year. The nature of the data did not allow adequate examination of any change in the rate of fetal wastage, before and after suture; or in the secular change in fetal wastage in the pregnant population. After cervical suture the rates of both premature delivery and of perinatal mortality were higher than in the general pregnancy population. The perinatal mortality rate in the cervical suture group showed a greater improvement after suture than was seen to occur between previous and current pregnancies in the whole population, although the excess improvement in pregnancy outcome that occurred after cervical suture could not be definitely ascribed to the suture.