Nationwide salpingectomy rates for an indication of permanent contraception before and after published practice guidelines

ObjectiveTo identify the nationwide rate of salpingectomy for permanent contraception before and after the January 2015 American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Committee Opinion, Salpingectomy for Ovarian Cancer Prevention.Study designUsing ICD-9/10 diagnosis and procedure codes within the Vizient database, we identify permanent contraception procedures with and without salpingectomy, among females 18-50 years old between January 2013 and January 2017. Subject, hospital characteristics and costs information were recorded. To determine the changes in salpingectomy rates over time analysis was conducted using the Cochran-Armitage trend test and logistic regression models.ResultsA total of 211,312 women across 303 Vizient-member hospitals underwent a permanent contraception procedure over the study period. Of these, 174,930 subjects were selected from 160 hospitals that contributed data over the full 49-month period. Overall, 25,882 (14.8%) subjects underwent a salpingectomy for an indication of permanent contraception. Higher salpingectomy rates were identified among larger (p<.0001), teaching (p<.0001) hospitals versus smaller, non-teaching hospitals and in subjects with commercial/private payers (p<.0001). A lower salpingectomy rate was observed in Northeast hospitals (p<.0001). Median total hospital costs differed by $25 between permanent contraceptions performed with and without salpingectomy. The proportion of salpingectomies was <1% in January 2013 slowly rising to 20.6% in October 2015 and then 61.5% by January 2017 (p<.0001). During the pre-opinion period (Jan 2013-Dec 2014) the monthly increase in the odds of salpingectomy was 6% (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.05, 1.06) compared to a monthly increase of 18% (OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.18, 1.18) during the post-opinion period (Jan 2015-Jan 2017).ConclusionsThe nationwide rate of salpingectomies for permanent contraception has steadily increased among Vizient-member hospitals since the ACOG committee opinion.ImplicationsSalpingectomy as an approach to permanent contraception in the United States is increasing since the ACOG Committee Opinion with differing utilization rates by hospital type, region, size, and patient payer types. Physician behavior may be influenced by practice guidelines but other factors mitigate the effect.