Oral misoprostol versus oxytocin in the management of third stage of labour

Objectives: to compare oral misoprostol versus intramuscular oxytocin in the management of third stage of labour. methods: the quasi-experimental study was conducted at the obstetrics and gynaecology unit ii, civil hospital, karachi, from june 20 to december 19, 2006. a total of 70 patients diagnosed in active phase of labour who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were selected by non-probability convenience sampling. these patients were divided into 2 groups of 35 patients each, for oxytocin (group 1) and misoprostol (group 2) . main and secondary outcome measures were analysed. spss 10 was used for statistical analysis. results: average amount of blood loss(ml) was 267.14±140.35 with oxytocin versus 302.86±160.4, with misoprostol, this difference was statistically insignificant (p=0.236). average drop in haemoglobin concentration (g/dl) with oxytocin was 1.55±0.38 vs 1.66±0.61 with misoprostol (p=0.684). drop in haematocrit (%) was 4.18±0.64 with oxytocin vs. 4.50±0.92 with misoprostol (p=0.133). there was also insignificant difference in duration of third stage of labour, between oxytocin and misoprostol groups (5.37±2.20 vs. 5.23±2.46, p=0.451) shivering, in misoprostol group occured in n=11 (31.4%) vs n=3 (8.6%) with oxytocin (p=0.017) and pyrexia in n=6 (17.1%) with misoprostol vs n=0, with oxytocin (p=0.025) thus significantly higher in misoprostol group. conclusion: there were no major differences in oral misoprostol and intramuscular oxytocin in the management of third stage of labour.