A Review of Manual Vacuum Aspiration in a Tertiary Hospital in Northwestern Nigeria

Introduction: Abortion is an important social and public health issue, complications from unsafe abortion is one of the leading causes of maternal mortality. It is a serious health problem. WHO estimates that 14% of maternal deaths which occur every year in the countries of South Africa and Bangladesh are due to abortion. Studies show Manual Vacuum Aspiration (MVA) procedure is safe and effective in incomplete abortion. Very few clinical trials were carried out to assess the safety and effectiveness of MVA in managing incomplete abortion. Objectives: To determine the indications and complications associated with the use of MVA in Federal Teaching Hospital (FTH) Katsina, Northwestern Nigeria. Methodology. A retrospective survey of MVAs performed over a periods of 5 years was analyzed. A total of 824 patients had MVA for various conditions, 682 case folders were retrieved, giving a retrieval rate of 94.90%, however 612 case folders were analyzed due to paucity of data captured in 70 of the case folders. Result: Major indication for the use of MVA was incomplete abortion which accounted for 74.67% of the cases. Thirteen patients had complications and the most frequent complication was incomplete evacuation which accounted for 53.85% of the complications. Resident Doctors performed most of the procedure. Conclusion: Incomplete abortion was the commonest indication for MVA in this study. MVA is a fairly safe procedure in our hospital as it is associated with a low complication rate.