[Induction for termination of pregnancy in the second trimester and for delivery of babies dead in utero using intramuscular injections of 15-methyl-PGF2 alpha (author's transl)].

Intramuscular injection of 15-methyl-PGF2 alpha was used to induce 48 terminations of pregnancy in the second trimester as well as to deliver 8 cases of death in utero and one hydatidiform mole. It is an effective method of treatment with a failure rate of 1.9%. As compared to the administration of pain-relieving drugs intravenously, continuous epidural analgesia has shown itself to be the only method which will allow the best possible conditions for the maintenance and control of prostaglandin induction to be carried out, suppressing effectively even the pains which are associated with uterine contractions brought on by prostaglandin. Although this method of systemic administration of prostaglandin does avoid any intervention through the cervicovaginal route, it does not completely do away with rare infections which are found to complicate matters when PGF2 alpha gel is administered by the extra-amniotic route. All the same, the acceptability and use of this method as a routine method must be limited by the high incidence of episodes of diarrhoea which are made worse by paralysis of the sphincters that is inseparable from epidural analgesia.