Medical management of ectopic pregnancy

Ectopic pregnancy refers to the pregnancy occurring outside the uterine cavity, predominantly i.e. 90% of them in the fallopian tube. Ectopic pregnancy affects 11 in 1000 pregnancies and is a significant cause of morbidity and at times mortality in the first trimester of pregnancy. In a 20-year longitudinal study on ectopic pregnancy in a defined population of women aged 15–39 years the rate of ectopic pregnancy per 1000 diagnosed conceptions increased from 5.8 during 1960–4 to 11.1 during 1975–9. The mean annual incidence of ectopic pregnancy per 1000 women increased from 0.6 to 1.2 during the same period. The numbers of ectopic pregnancies per 1000 diagnosed conceptions increased with increasing age of the women and were 4.1 in the teenage group, 6.9 in women aged 20–29 years, and 12.9 in women aged 30–39.