Midtrimester termination of pregnancy using gemeprost in combination with laminaria in women who have previously undergone cesarean section.

AIM: We aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of midtrimester termination of pregnancy using gemeprost in combination with laminaria in women who had previously undergone cesarean section and in women who had not. METHODS: Between January 1999 and December 2006, we carried out a retrospective study of termination of pregnancy at 12-21 weeks of gestation at the University of Tsukuba Hospital. Termination of pregnancy was carried out by three-step uterine cervical dilation using laminaria followed by vaginal administration of 1 mg gemeprost every 3 h for up to four doses over 24 h. RESULTS: A total of 173 women underwent midtrimester termination of pregnancy. The women were categorized into two groups: those who had previously undergone cesarean section (n = 26) (previous cesarean section group) and those who had not (n = 147) (control group). Seven women had undergone cesarean section at least twice. The gemeprost dose administered was 2.8 +/- 1.4 mg for the previous cesarean section group and 2.4 +/- 1.6 mg for the control group (difference in doses not significant). Although abnormal vaginal bleeding (>500 mL) was more likely to occur in the previous cesarean section group than in the control group (odds ratio, 2.61; 95% confidence interval, 0.63-10.82), none of the woman required blood transfusion. Uterine rupture and failed abortion were not observed. CONCLUSION: The efficacy and safety of our laminaria-gemeprost protocol for termination of pregnancy during the midtrimester are similar for women who have previously undergone cesarean section and those who have not.

Influence of curing method and storage condition on microhardness of dual-cure resin cements.

This study evaluated the influence of curing method and storage condition on the microhardness of dual-cure resin cements: Panavia F 2.0 (PF) and Nexus 2 (NX). The specimens were either light-cured (LC) or chemically cured in darkness (CC). After 24 hours of storage in dry chamber (Dry) or distilled water (DW), the specimens were sectioned and polished. The microhardness of resin cement matrix was measured using a nanoindentation tester (ENT-1100). The data (n = 6) were statistically analyzed with t-test, two-way ANOVA (p < 0.05), and Tukey HSD test (alpha = .05). It was found that the factors of curing method and storage condition had significant effect on microhardness. For both PF and NX, LC presented higher microhardness than CC, while DW showed higher microhardness than Dry. In conclusion, dual-cure resin cements could achieve high degree of cure when light-cured. In addition, the microhardness of the resin cements evaluated did not decrease when kept in water.