Efficacy of Vaginal Progesterone and Nifedipine in Inhibiting Threatened Preterm Labour
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51985/Keywords:
Threatened preterm labour, vaginal progesterone, nifedipine, tocolysis, preterm birth.Abstract
Objective: To compare the effectiveness of vaginal progesterone and oral nifedipine in preventing threatened preterm labour.
Study design & Settings: randomized controlled trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT07649668) that carried out a study in the Department of Gynecology, Hilal-e-Ahmar Hospital, Faisalabad
Methods: There were 160 pregnant women between 18 and 35 years old with a singleton pregnancy and the gestation age ranging 24 to 36 weeks, frequent painful uterine contractions, and cervical dilatation up to less than 2 cm. There was a random assignment of patients to two equal groups. Group A was given nifedipine, and Group B received vaginal micronized progesterone. The main outcome was efficacy, meaning the delayed delivery time beyond 48 hours of starting the therapy or the preterm birth not occurring within the time period. Data analysis was done with SPSS version 25.0 with a p-value of less than 0.05 and was taken as statistically significant.
Results: The study population had the mean age of 28.91+4.62 years and the mean gestational age of 32.84+2.71 weeks. In 59/80 patients, oral nifedipine was effective provided an efficacy rate of 73.75. In 72 out of 80 patients (efficacy of 90.00) vaginal progesterone proved to be effective. The difference of two groups was significant (p=0.008).
Conclusion: Oral nifedipine was less effective compared to vaginal progesterone in the inhibition of threatened preterm labour. It can be viewed as superior treatment modality in women having singleton pregnancy with threatened preterm labour.
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