Background and Objective: Abortion is defined as expulsion or extraction of a fetus before 28 weeks of
gestation with no evidence of life. Worldwide 40 – 50 million abortions occur annually and 125,000
abortions per day. The Objective of this study was to assess the pattern and determinant of abortions in
a private tertiary care teaching hospital of Lahore.
Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted in Fatima Memorial Hospital Lahore from March to
August 2015 using record files of Gynecology Department for last five years. A Non-probability consecutive
sampling technique was used to include 514 patients. Data was collected using questionnaires and
analysed using SPSS 20.
Results: Mean age of (514) participants was 27.66 ± 5.06 years. History of abortion within first 5 years
of marriage was reported in 55.43%. 331 females (64.39%) had gestational amenorrhea for more than
15 weeks. At time of presentation, 35.89% had pain and 51.41% had per vaginal bleeding.32.26% had
previous history of abortion. Associated co-morbidity was observed in 22.56% of the patients. Most
common of them was Hypertension/Pre-eclampsia (53.44%) and Diabetes (31.03 %).Out of 514, 225
abortions were done due to maternal indications and 214 due to fetal indications. Majority of the abortions
were Induced size 109 (21.21%). Most common post-partum complication was bleeding reported in
49 (86%) cases. Mean hospital stay of the patients in this study was 2 ± 1.34 days.
Conclusion: Major fetal indications included multiple malformations and abnormal implantation while
maternal indications included hypertension/Pre eclampsia/Eclampsia and diabetes.