Mechanical dilation to remove incarcerated laminaria during a second trimester abortion

Cervical preparation with laminaria reduces complications with 2nd trimester dilation and evacuation. During a surgical abortion at 22 weeks, we could not remove laminaria manually or with ring forceps due to laminaria “dumbbelling” [1] . Without pushing laminaria into the uterus, we mechanically dilated the cervix and removed the incarcerated laminaria.