Atosiban vs ritodrine used prophylactically with cerclage in ICSI pregnancies to prevent pre-term birth in women identified as being at high risk on the basis of transvaginal ultrasound scan

Our objective was to compare the effectiveness and safety of atosiban and ritodrine, in pregnancies obtained by intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) undergoing cervical cerclage. Data from a prospective study were compared with those from a retrospective study. Sixteen ICSI pregnant women, 20 - 24 weeks' gestation and maternal age >18 years, received atosiban (bolus dose 6.75 mg i.v., followed by 300 μg/min i.v. for 3 h and 100 μg/min i.v. for 45 h). Cervical cerclage was performed 3 h after starting atosiban. The control group (group B) of 16 ICSI pregnant women were matched and received ritodrine hydrochloride (100 - 350 μg/min) for 48 h. Cervical cerclage was performed after 24 h. Pre-term rupture of membranes occurred within 48 h of cervical cerclage in one woman receiving atosiban and in four women receiving ritodrine. There was no significant difference in terms of pregnancies not delivered at 48 h (short-term tocolysis) and at 7 days (long-term tocolysis). However, there was a significantly higher incidence of maternal tachycardia with ritodrine compared with atosiban (p<0.001). The mean gestational age at delivery was significantly higher for atosiban compared with ritodrine (36 vs 33 weeks; p<0.001). The neonatal outcome was poorer for ritodrine than atosiban, as there were very low birth weight infants (p=0.008), resulting in lower Apgar scores (p=0.005) and there were more neonates requiring a long stay in the neonatal intensive care unit (p=0.005). We conclude that atosiban is associated with a significantly lower incidence of maternal tachycardia and improved neonatal outcome compared with ritodrine. © 2006 Informa UK Ltd.