Objective: To verify the benefits of 17 alpha hydroxyprogesterone use throughout the second half of pregnancy in preventing preterm birth among those with an increased risk of preterm birth.
Methods: The systematic review was conducted at the University Hospital, Baghdad, Iraq, from June 2020 to July 2021, and comprised search for randomised controlled trials having used progesterone for the prevention of preterm birth among women with a short cervix length <2.5cm. The search, conducted on Cochrane, Medline, PubMed and Scopus databases, was not limited by publication date. Cochrane guideline for conducting systematic review and metanalysis was used.
Results: There were 3 randomised controlled trials comprising 1705 subjects; 860(50.4%) cases and 845(49.6%) controls in the placebo group. Among them, 175(20.3%) cases and 197(23.3%) controls suffered from preterm labour (p=0.116).
Conclusions: Though earlier evidence supported the benefits of locally applied progesterone to a short cervix in pregnancy prolongation, but the current analysis found no significant benefits in this regard.
Keywords: Preterm labour, Prevention, Progesterone, Short cervix..