Why does suction leakage occur during abortion?

Artificial abortion, also known as induced abortion, is a last resort remedial measure taken by women when contraception fails. Any surgery has certain risks, and artificial abortion is no exception. Complications such as artificial abortion syndrome, uterine perforation, incomplete uterine aspiration, missed aspiration, and postoperative infection may occur during and after the operation. Among them, the causes of missed aspiration include the following:

1. The fetal sac is too small and the gestational age is inaccurate

The gestational sac is too small (﹤2cm), or the gestational age is high and the embryo is small; the B-ultrasound examination is unclear, and surgery is performed hastily without comprehensive analysis of the ultrasound examination, gynecological examination and medical history, which may lead to missed aspiration.

2. Insufficient operator experience

After the operation, the surgeon failed to carefully check whether the embryonic tissue was consistent with the actual pregnancy period. He believed that the operation was successful when he saw a few villi, causing most of the villi to continue to develop in the uterine cavity.

3. Excessive flexion of the uterus

Excessive flexion of the uterus will cause certain difficulties in the operation, resulting in the inability of the suction tube to reach the uterine fundus or the uterine cornua on both sides, resulting in suction leakage.

4. Uterine malformation

Uterine malformation is also one of the causes of missed aspiration. The more common ones include double uterus, bicornuate uterus, complete or incomplete uterine septum, etc. Once the fertilized egg implants in one side of the uterine cavity or uterine cornu, missed aspiration is likely to occur if the surgeon does not understand the condition of the uterine cavity.

In short, if too little material is aspirated during the operation, especially when the embryonic sac is not seen, the position, shape, and size of the uterus should be rechecked, and the uterine cavity should be re-probed in order to rediscover the problem and solve it in a timely manner.