Cervical pessaries for prevention of spontaneous preterm birth: past, present and future

• Birgit Arabin
• Z. Alfirevic

Abstract

This review describes the rationale for the use of cervical pessaries to prevent spontaneous preterm birth and their gradual introduction into clinical practice, discusses technical aspects of the more commonly used designs and provides guidance for their use and future evaluation. Possible advantages of cervical pessaries include the easy, ‘one-off’ application, good side-effect profile, good patient tolerance and relatively low cost compared with current alternatives. Use of transvaginal sonography to assess cervical length in the second trimester allows much better selection of patients who may benefit from the use of a cervical pessary, but future clinical trials are needed to establish clearly the role of pessaries as a preterm birth prevention strategy worldwide.

Original article is published in Ultrasound Obstetrics Gynecology. Editorial office of journal «Obstetrics and gynecology: news, views, education» No. 1, 2014 expresses gratitude to John Wiley & Sons Ltd publishing company for possibility of republication.

Reference to article: Arabin B., Alfirevic Z. Cervical pessaries for prevention of spontaneous preterm birth: past, present and future // Ultrasound Obstet. Gynecol. – 2013. – Vol. 42 (4). – P. 90–399.

Keywords:cervical pessary, polyclinic setting, spontaneous preterm birth, transvaginal sonography in obstetrics