New international guidelines on how to provide treatment for women having miscarriage surgery are needed after a large-scale international trial has provided new evidence. The trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved thousands of women at hospitals, including the Aga Khan University (AKU) Hospital in Karachi. The findings of the study show that administering antibiotics prior to miscarriage surgery had a possible benefit when pelvic infection was defined by global standards. "In Pakistan, access to resources to care for women who do develop complications after miscarriage surgery is poor. The findings of this study will lead to improved treatment outcomes for women," said Dr Rahat Qureshi, Associate Professor, Department of obstetrics and gynaecology, at the AKU and one of the authors of the study, along with Dr Zulfiqar A Bhutta, the Founding Director of AKU’s Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health.