Research Article

Assessment of Methotrexate Efficacy in The Treatment of Ectopic Pregnancy

  • Mehmet OBUT
  • M. Hanifi BADEMKIRAN
  • Sedat AKGÖL
  • Bekir KAHVECI
  • İhsan BAĞLI
  • S. Cemil OĞLAK
  • M. Şükrü BUDAK

Received Date: 17.02.2019 Accepted Date: 23.03.2019 Namik Kemal Med J 2019;7(1):25-30

Aim:

Our aim in this study was to assess efficacy of single-dose methotrexate (MTX) as medical treatment for ectopic pregnancy (EP) by evaluating the results of patients given this treatment.

Materials and Methods:

Between September 2016 and August 2017, the treatment outcomes of EP cases treated with MTX at Gazi Yaşargil Training and Research Hospital of Health Sciences University were evaluated retrospectively.

Results:

In total, 126 cases treated for EP were evaluated and 65 cases were included in the study. In cases administered a single dose of MTX, the success rate was 80%, the failure rate was 13.8%, and the emergency surgery rate was 6.2%. The overall success rate of the medical treatment was 90.7% for a second dose of MTX. An unsuccessful result was considered as less than a 15% reduction in the beta-human chorionic gonadotropin (β-hCG) level between 4 and 7 days after single dose MTX administration. In all cases, the rate of emergency surgery after treatment was 9.3%.

Conclusions:

In our study, success rates in patients with EP treated with MTX were 80% after a single dose and as high as 90.7% when a second dose was added.

Keywords: ectopic pregnancy, medical treatment, methotrexate efficacy, success rate