Search

Vaginal bleeding in the first trimester is a common occurrence, but the majority of the pregnancies have a normal outcome. The careful assessment is yet important, given the possibility of complications. The patients with a threatened abortion should be monitored for progression to pregnancy failure. The most common type of spontaneous abortion is early pregnancy loss, defined as death of an embryo or fetus within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy. The clinical manifestations have low specificity, neither the duration of bleeding, nor the presence of lower abdominal cramping in the first trimester being reliable indicators of pregnancy outcome, thus the special attention has turned to ultrasonography for the evaluation of early pregnancy complications. The therapeutic approach (expectant management, medication or surgical interventions) should be tailored based on the gestational age, clinical and ultrasound findings. Severe hemorrhage requires urgent treatment, the surgical evacuation of the products of conception being often necessary. In this paper, we present the incidence and prevalence of early pregnancy loss and threat of abortion in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Bucharest University Emergency Hospital, for a two-year period, discussing the impact of the advanced maternal age as a risk factor for spontaneous abortion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]