[Misoprostol and oxytocin for induction of cervical ripening and labor in patients with term pregnancy and premature membrane rupture]

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Oxytocin.

To evaluate the effect of the concurrent administration of intravaginal misoprostol and oxytocin for cervical ripening and labor induction on length labor, mode of delivery and perinatal outcomes.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, women only.

One hundred seven patients with singleton pregnancy at term, vertex presentations, premature rupture of membranes and Bishop scores of < or = 4 were randomly assigned to receive one of three treatments: Group I: Intravenous oxytocin plus intravaginal misoprostol (n = 36); Group II: Intravenous oxytocin plus placebo intravaginal (n = 34); Group III: Intravaginal misoprostol plus intravenous placebo.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Oxytocin study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Oxytocin group a baseline to be compared against.

The time interval from induction to beginning of the labor, from induction to delivery, mode of delivery and perinatal outcomes were measured.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Premature Rupture of Fetal Membranes, Labor, Induced, Misoprostol, Oxytocics and Oxytocin.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Oxytocin.

Its findings take up roughly 4 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2002 (Ginecologia y obstetricia de Mexico), a journal based in Mexico.

More context: the Oxytocin compound page, all human trials.