Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital

Dr. Keun-young Lee and his team of the female special center at Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital have recently disclosed that the effectiveness of repeat cerclage in women with prolapsed membranes after a prior cerclage on cervical incompetence which causes a miscarriage due to cervical dilatation and amniotic membrane prolapse would lead to loss of a fetus or an early preterm delivery.

According to his latest report, ‘Repeat Cerclage Prolongs Pregnancy in Women with Prolapsed Membranes,’ the only way to treat cervical incompetence is a cerclage suture, however, it still has a risk of causing fetal abnormalities with bulging membranes after a cerclage attempt.

In this case, international standards have traditionally recommended to stop discontinue pregnancy.

To prevent miscarriages, Dr. Lee’s team divided twenty-four pregnant women with prolapsed membranes after initial cerclages into two groups ─ a twelve-member group for repeat cerclage and the other twelve for bed rest. As a result, the neonatal survival rate in the repeat cerclage group showed twenty two times higher than that of the bed rest only group’s.

Dr. Lee explained, “We have found that the repeat cerclage group could finally deliver babies by allowing fetuses to stay with their mothers an average of 35.8 days longer. It means that their average stay is more than 34 days longer.

“If a baby could stay longer in its mother’s uterus, a neonate would be much healthier. I expect that this result could be new international standards of operations for women with cervical incompetence caused by intrauterine infection, excessive blood loss, or immediate pregnancy loss,” he added.

By Sung-won Lee, Int’l Operations Team, HUMC (sungwon@hallym.or.kr)