A comparative study of manual vaccum aspiration (MVA) AND electric vaccum aspiration (EVA) for pregnancy termination of upto 10 weeks gestation

Background: Induced abortion in first trimester is one of the commonly performed operations in obstetrics. Unsafe abortions kill about 70,000 women annually. So, methods of early pregnancy termination commonly used like, Manual Vaccum Aspiration (MVA) & Electric Vaccum Aspiration (EVA) are compared in this study. The objective was to compare the safety and efficacy of MVA and EVA in early pregnancy termination. Methods: Two hundred pregnant women of gestation upto 10weeks wanting first trimester pregnancy termination were subjected to either MVA or EVA. Age of the patient, gravidity, period of gestation, time taken for the procedure, blood loss, complications and duration of hospital stay were studied. Results: 37% patients in MVA had grade I pain and 54% patients in EVA had grade IV pain. 72% cases in MVA had grade I bleeding & 48% in EVA had grade II bleeding. The bleeding after MVA procedure was less as compared to EVA. Common complications noted were incomplete abortion (1% in MVA & 4% in EVA), and cervical laceration (none in MVA and 3% in EVA). Cervical laceration was common in EVA during insertion of rigid metallic cannula. In MVA, mean average time taken is less by 5-6 minutes and average blood loss is also less by 8ml as compared to EVA. Women were discharged in 6-8 hours and 12-16 hours in MVA & EVA respectively. Conclusions: Women undergoing MVA had overall satisfaction with relation to pain, blood loss, & duration of hospital stay. MVA had 99% success rate. So, MVA is safe and effective in abortions upto 10weeks gestation with less complication than EVA. [Int J Reprod Contracept Obstet Gynecol 2013; 2(2.000): 199-203]