Comparing preoperative dating and postoperative dating for second trimester surgical abortions

Abstract Objectives To assess relationships between preoperative and postoperative dating of second trimester surgical abortion. Study design We used a de-identified institutional database to extract demographic, dating and pathology data for surgical abortions performed at 14 to 23–6/7 weeks gestational age (GA) from 9/2015–5/2017. We excluded women with multiple gestations, fetal anomalies, and missing fetal biometric measurements. We assigned preoperative GA by ultrasonography for unknown last menstrual period (LMP) or when discrepancy between sonographic and LMP dating exceeded 7 days ( Results The 469 patients analyzed had a median preoperative GA of 19 4/7 weeks (range 14–0/7 to 23–6/7 weeks). Preoperative dating highly correlated with postoperative dating using both pathology standards (r 2 =0.95, p Conclusions Preoperative and postoperative dating for second trimester surgical abortion highly correlate. Use of Streeter standards results in more women with a postoperative GA greater than expected compared to Drey standards.