Prevention of Preterm Birth With a Pessary in Singleton Gestations

NCT02056652 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 122

Last updated 2018-05-29

Study results available
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Summary

Preterm birth (PTB) is associated with over one million infant deaths annually worldwide. The incidence of PTB in the United States is 11.5% with more than 500,000 deliveries occurring at less than 37 weeks gestation annually. The rate of PTB in the United States increased to 12.8% in 2006, and remains high compared to almost all other developed countries, despite the introduction of many public health and medical interventions designed to delay PTB. Weekly treatment with 17-alpha hydroxyprogesterone caproate beginning at 16-20 weeks gestation has been shown to significantly reduce the risk of PTB and is currently recommended for women who experienced spontaneous PTB in a prior pregnancy. However, a strategy for the prevention of spontaneous PTBs in which therapeutic intervention is restricted to women with a previous PTB is likely to have a small effect on the overall rate of prematurity since only about 10% of spontaneous PTBs arise in women with such a history. A major reduction in rates of mortality and morbidity in premature babies will only be achieved with increased precision in the identification of women at risk of spontaneous PTB and through the development of an effective prevention for this complication. Transvaginal ultrasound measurement of cervical length is a reliable screening test for prediction of PTB. Although treatment with vaginal progesterone is effective in decreasing PTB in women with a short cervix, over 30% of women still experience premature delivery and many women find daily administration of progesterone to be challenging. Preliminary studies have suggested that use of an intravaginal pessary may be effective in preventing PTB. If effective this approach would be particularly appealing because of the wide availability of pessaries, ease of use, and low cost. Unfortunately, existing studies are inadequate to confirm effectiveness; a well designed, properly powered, prospective randomized trial is warranted prior to widespread implementation in clinical practice. We propose such a trial to study the effectiveness of the pessary in decreasing the incidence of PTB in an inner city Philadelphia population.

Conditions

Interventions

DEVICE

Bioteque cup pessary

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Lorraine Dugoff, MD · University of Pennsylvania

  • Vincenzo Berghella, MD · Thomas Jefferson University

  • Jack Ludmir, MD · University of Pennsylvania

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
50 Years
Sex
FEMALE
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2014-02-28
Primary Completion
2016-09-30
Completion
2016-11-30

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT02056652 on ClinicalTrials.gov