Pessary ‘no better than progesterone’ for preterm birth prevention
The study included women with singleton pregnancies, no prior spontaneous preterm birth <34 weeks’ gestation and a short cervix.
Cervical pessary is no better than vaginal progesterone for preventing preterm birth in women with singleton pregnancies and a short cervix of ≤35mm, according to Dutch doctors.
And with a cervix length of ≤25mm, a pessary appeared to increase the risk of adverse perinatal outcomes and spontaneous preterm births before 28 weeks’ gestation.
Writing in the BMJ, the researchers said the “superiority of a cervical pessary compared with vaginal progesterone … could not be proven”.
Their multicentre trial included more than 600 women with singleton pregnancies, no prior spontaneous preterm birth <34 weeks’ gestation, and an asymptomatic short cervix of ≤35mm.
