Unsafe Abortion

LAPAROSCOPIC REMOVAL OF A RUBBER CATHETER ERODING INTO THE ILIUM BONE FROM THE PERITONEAL CAVITY FOLLOWING UNSAFE ABORTION

Pawar P, Mathews AJ, Chaudhry NK

Department of Surgery, Christian medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana.

ABSTRACT

A majority of unsafe abortions are performed by untrained quacks leading to multiple complications which contribute to significant maternal morbidity and mortality. We report a case of a foreign body eroding through the ileum bone following unsafe abortion after a period of one year.

INTRODUCTION

A majority of unsafe abortions are performed by untrained birth attendants and quacks leading to complications in a large number of cases. Usually, the complications are catastrophic and life threatening. Complications

This leads to severe health consequences ranging from visceral injury, genital injury to septicemia and death. An estimated 19 million unsafe abortions occur worldwide each year, resulting in the death of 70,000 women, contributing to 8.9% of maternal mortality 3,4. There are innumerable ways in which unsafe abortion can be conducted. Objects used for abortions are knitting needles, wooden or metal sticks, roots of plants or even a bougie. The complications can manifest immediately or after a few days5.

In this case, however the symptoms manifested after a year and surprisingly the typical features of an intra- abdominal or intrauterine foreign body were all absent. The patient had no menstrual irregularity, discharge per vaginum, chronic pelvic pain, subacute intestinal obstruction, vomiting etc. A plausible explanation for this is the fact that the rubber tube is made of an inert material and the uterine perforation was have occurred through a less vascular portion of the uterine wall and the earlier symptoms of pain or bleeding per vaginum could have been attributed to the