Outcome of antenatal invasive diagnostic tests in a fetal medicine unit with low case load in North Wales, United Kingdom

This study is the first long-term audit data from a smaller fetal medicine unit with relatively low annual case load, suggesting that miscarriage risk may actually be lower than the current understanding. No additional risk of miscarriage or pregnancy loss following fetal invasive procedures even with relatively low annual numbers than that recommended by the RCOG.What the implications are of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? The findings of this study are important in the era of non-invasive prenatal testing which will see the overall number of fetal invasive procedures decline with time. Competence in safely undertaking antenatal invasive procedure can possibly be maintained with lower annual procedure numbers. Units undertaking low number of antenatal invasive procedure must continuously audit their practice to ensure satisfactory standards and outcomes. More research is needed from smaller units to corroborate or refute the findings of this study.PMID:34030601 | DOI:10.1080/01443615.2021.1904219
Source: Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology - Category: OBGYN Authors: Source Type: research