Ultraschall Med 2016; 37 - SL17_3
DOI: 10.1055/s-0036-1587794

Fetal loss following invasive prenatal testing: a comparison of transadominal chorionic villus sampling, transcervical chorionic villus sampling and amniocentesis

SL Niederstrasser 1, K Hammer 1, M Möllers 1, MK Falkenberg 1, R Schmidt 2, J Steinhard 3, W Klockenbusch 1, R Schmitz 1
  • 1Universitätsklinikum Münster, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Münster, Germany
  • 2University of Münster/Institute of Biostatistics and Clinical Research, Münster, Germany
  • 3Heart and Diabetes Center North Rhine-Westphalia, Department of Fetal Cardiology, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany

Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare transabdominal chorionic villus sampling, transcervical chorionic villus sampling and amniocentesis with respect to their total fetal loss rates.

Material and methods: We retrospectively evaluated procedures of invasive prenatal testing performed during a 14-year period (2001 – 2014) including 936 amniocentesis procedures and 1051 chorionic villus samplings, of which 405 cases were executed transabdominally and 646 transcervically. Only singleton pregnancies before 24+0 weeks of gestation where the pregnancy outcome was known were included. Fetal loss was defined as an abortion occurring either before 24+0 weeks of gestation or less than 2 weeks after the procedure.

Results: The total fetal loss rates were determined to be 1.73% for transabdominal chorionic villus sampling, 2.01% for transcervical chorionic villus sampling and 1.18% for amniocentesis. No statistically noticeable differences between the total fetal loss rates of all three procedures were found (p = 0.399).

Conclusions: Our study has shown that chorionic villus sampling (either transabdominal or transcervical) and amniocentesis are equal methods for invasive prenatal testing with respect to their abortion risk.