Efficacy of Oral Progesterone in Preterm Births at a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the efficacy of oral progesterone in prevention of preterm labor at a tertiary care hospital. Material and methods: All women (345) with previous history of preterm delivery, aged less than 45 years of age having their gestational ages 15 – 20 weeks were included from January 2015 to June 2016 at Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Nishtar Hospital Multan. These study cases were given 400 mg oral progesterone every day till delivery and were followed till delivery to record prevention of preterm birth (efficacy; birth of a baby with more than 37 weeks gestational age assessed on LMP treated with oral progesterone). Data were analyzed by using SPSS Version 20. Results: Mean age of our study cases was 30.12 ± 4. 83 years. Mean parity of our study cases was 4.52 ± 1.19. Mean gravidity of our study cases was 5.66 ± 1.18. Mean gestational age of our study cases was 37.51 ± 1.34 weeks at the time of delivery. Mean body mass index of our study cases was 23.39 ± 2.87 kg/m². Our study results have indicated that obesity was present in 83 (24.1%) study cases. Of these 345 study cases, 180 (52.2%) belonged to urban areas, 328 (95.1%) had singleton pregnancy and previous no. of preterm births ranging from 1 – 2 was noted in 240 (69.57%).  Treatment with oral progesterone prevented preterm labor in 231 (67%) of the study cases. Conclusion: Our study results support the use of oral progesterone as use of oral progesterone was successful in preventing preterm labor in our study. Its use was found to be safe and reliable, hence can be given to the women with previous history of preterm birth without any adverse side effect. The prevention of preterm birth was significantly associated with age, parity, gravidity, no. of previous preterm births, order of pregnancy and residential status.

Keywords: Oral Progesterone, Prevention, Preterm birth.