Procedure related risk of premature delivery and fetal growth reduction following amniocentesis, transcervical and transabdominal chorionic villus sampling: a retrospective study

: Background The aim of this study was to compare transabdominal and transcervical chorionic villus sampling (CVS) as well as amniocentesis (AC) with respect to their rates of premature delivery and fetal growth restriction. Methods We retrospectively evaluated the mentioned procedures of invasive prenatal testing performed in a single center between 2001 and 2016. Seven hundred and ninety-nine cases of AC and 719 cases of CVS were included, of which 400 were performed transvaginally. Only singleton pregnancies with a normal karyotype and delivery after 24 + 0 weeks of gestation were included. Fetal growth restriction was defined as birth weight below the 10th percentile. Premature delivery was defined as delivery before 37 + 0 weeks of gestation. Data were compared to a control group without an invasive procedure. Results The frequency of premature delivery was 8.5% after transabdominal CVS, 6.3% after transcervical CVS and 10.5% after AC as compared to 10.8% in the control group. The frequency of fetal growth restriction was 8.2% after transabdominal CVS 6.8% after transcervical CVS and 8.4% after AC as compared to 9.7% in the control group. Conclusion Our study supports that the three different methods of invasive prenatal testing do not lead to a higher risk of either premature delivery or fetal growth restriction when compared to controls. We found no difference in risk profile among the three techniques.