Introduction: The rate of preterm labor in twin pregnancy is 7 times more than singleton pregnancy. Due to applying cerclage as prophylaxis for preventing preterm labor in some centers, we decided to compare the outcome of twin pregnancies between a group who were applied cerclage and a group who were not applied cerclage.
Methods: This case-control study was done on 115 cases of twin pregnancy with gestational age of 20-40 weeks who referred to Ayatollah Rouhani hospital in Babol, Iran in 2010-2012. Cases were divided into two groups. 80 cases without cerclage (group 1) and 35 cases with the use of MacDonald cerclage (group 2). The clinical and demographic data were recorded in questionnaires. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 18 and t-test, chi-square and Fisher's exact test. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: The mean of gestational age in time of delivery was 34.36±3.65 weeks in group 1 and 34.11±5.05 weeks in group 2, that the difference was not significant (p=0.794).
The rate of preterm labor was 52 women (65%) in group 1 and 20 women (57.1%) in group 2, that the difference was not significant (p=0.089). No significant difference was found regarding maternal and neonatal outcomes in two groups (p=0.514).
Conclusion: Cerclage has no effect on preventing preterm labor and complication of prematurity in twin pregnancy.