Basic characteristics of the groups are presented in Table 1. There were no statistical differences in age, parity, obstetric history, cervical dilatation, or WBC and CRP levels between the groups. After the removal of the cerclage all patients delivered before possible time of pessary insertion and thus were excluded from the study. The study group consisted of 15 women treated with cervical cerclage and an adjunctive pessary and the control group of 17 patients treated with cerclage only.