2025 Volume 61 Issue 1 Pages 39-43
Objective：Cervical insufficiency is one of the major causes of preterm birth（PTB）, and cervical cerclage is commonly used for its treatment. Although there are reports suggesting that cerclage depth（from cerclage to external os）affects the duration of prolonged pregnancy, a consensus has not yet been achieved. Therefore, we retrospectively reviewed cases of cervical cerclage performed in our hospital over the past 5 years. Methods：We reviewed the medical records of 102 cases who underwent cervical cerclage at our hospital from July 2018 to June 2023, and investigated the perinatal outcomes.
Results：Prophylactic cervical cerclage（prophylactic group）was performed in 50 patients and therapeutic cervical cerclage（therapeutic group）was performed in 52 patients. PTB was defined as less than 36 weeks. 7 cases（14％）in the prophylactic group and 15 cases（28％）in the therapeutic group had PTB. The duration of prolonged pregnancy was 134（±27.0）days in the prophylactic group and 95（±28.0）days in the therapeutic group（P ＜ 0.001）.
In the therapeutic group, cervical length before and after cerclage and cervical depth showed a significant positive correlation with the duration of prolonged pregnancy, respectively. Multiple regression analysis showed that BMI（β＝－1.85, P＝0.005）, gestational age（β＝－0.62, P ＜ 0.001）, and post-treatment cervical length（β＝1.81, P ＜ 0.001）were significant, but the cerclage depth（P＝0.715）was not significant.
Conclusion：In therapeutic cervical cerclage, post-treatment cervical length, not cerclage depth, was significantly associated with the extension of the pregnancy period. Post-treatment cervical length of ＞ 20mm should be achieved when performing cervical cerclage to improve pregnancy outcome.
