Prevention of preterm delivery in women with multiple pregnancy
Authors: Tkachenko A.V. 
Published: December 2018

The objective — to asses the effectiveness of obstetric pessary for cervical incompetence correction in women with multiple pregnancy and infertility in the anamnesis, treated by ART. 30 ART treated pregnant women with infertility in the anamnesis, with dichorionic diamniotic twins (DCDA) were divided into 3 groups, depending on the gestational age when cervical incompetence was diagnosed and vaginal pessary placed: the I group consisted of 5 pregnant women (17%), whom pessary was inserted at 19–22 gestational weeks, the II group included 18 (60.0%) women with correction of cervical insufficiency from 23 to 27 weeks of gestation, the III — 7 (23%) of the patients with pessary implementation in terms of 28–32 gestational weeks. Diagnosis of cervical incompetence was based on the FMF criterias, the Score Rating Scale (Shtember Scale in the modification of G.M. Savelieva) and cervical indices (CI). The sonographic evaluation of cervical insufficiency considered the cervical length (less than 25 mm), opening of the internal os and / or cervical canal (9 mm or more), ICSC>0.22, IPC>0.18 and the Rating Scale score > 5–6 points. With the aim to treat cervical incompetence during pregnancy, silicone vaginal pessary (ASQ, perforated) was used. The cervical assessment by transvaginal ultrasound probe was performed every 2 weeks and evaluated 1 month after correction. The data obtained were processed statistically, using the Microsoft Excel software. The average age of pregnant women was 27.7±2.8 years (28–38 years). Extragenital pathology was determined in 83.3% of women. All pregnant women had infertility in anamnesis, treated by ART, 18 (60%) by standard IVF procedure and 12 (40%) using ICSI method. The number of primiparous and multiparous women was the same. Within pregnancy duration, there were artificial abortions in 8 (53,3%), miscarriages in 7 (46,7%), prematurity in 3 (20,0%) and term delivery in 2 (13,3%) patients in the anamnesis. The current pregnancy was complicated by threatened abortions in all groups, which clinical signs most often occurred within 8–10 and 14–17 weeks of gestation. The average duration of pessary placement in groups was 15.0±1.8; 12.2±1.6 and 4.7±2.1 weeks, respectively. According to ultrasonography evaluation, the visual lengthening of the cervix from 21.6±3.4 mm to 30.2±3.6 mm (p<0,05) were observed in all groups, during the first week of treatment. Preterm delivery occurred in 6 (20%) women, among them before 32 weeks — 3.3%, 32–34 weeks — 10% and in 35–36 weeks — 6.5% of observations. 16.7% of pregnant women had vaginal delivery, 25 (83.3%) underwent Cesarean Section, 76.7% of them had a planned CS. No cases of antenatal or intranatal fetal death happened, as well as newborns with extremely low body weight were not observed in women of all three groups. Results were obtained testify the role of cervical incompetence in the pathogenesis of perinatal losses in women with multiple pregnancy. Evaluation and diagnosis of cervical insufficiency to predict and prevent premature labor in such group of patients should be based on criteria of Fetal Medicine Foundation (FMF), using the method of transvaginal ultrasound cervicometry. An additional calculation of cervical indices may improve the reliability of the prognostic technique. The safety, accessibility and efficacy of obstetric vaginal pessary usage for non-surgical correction of cervical incompetence, as well as absence of severe complications in women with twin pregnancies, have been demonstrated.