Transvaginal hydrolaparoscopy by flexible fiberscope--a study of preliminary cases

Kataoka A, Akio Kataoka, Hirakawa S, Shouko Hirakawa, Iwamoto M, Manami Iwamoto, Yumi Sakumura, Sakumura Y, Yoshinaga R, Ryouta Yoshinaga
The Kurume medical journal · 2011 · doi:10.2739/kurumemedj.58.99 · PMID:23047139
other OA: bronze public-domain-us
🔓 Open OA copy Full text JSON View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by qwen3.7-flash, 2026-08-13 ⓘ

This preliminary study evaluated transvaginal hydrolaparoscopy by flexible fiberscope in seven infertile women, demonstrating its feasibility and safety for detecting tubal abnormalities and facilitating subsequent pregnancy via assisted reproductive technology.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

⚙ AI-generated deep summary by qwen3.7-flash, 2026-08-13 · read from full text ⓘ

This preliminary study evaluated the feasibility of transvaginal hydrolaparoscopy using a flexible fiberscope in seven infertile women, including those with retroverted uteri or prior pelvic surgery. The procedure successfully identified tubal obstructions and adhesions in four patients without causing serious complications, leading to assisted reproductive technology interventions that resulted in six births within two years. The authors conclude that this less traumatic outpatient method expands diagnostic options for complex infertility cases where traditional solid-scope techniques are limited. Relevance to endometriosis: listed as one indication for the procedure, though the paper's main focus is tubal infertility and technical feasibility rather than endometriosis pathology or treatment outcomes.

Read from the paper's body, not the abstract. Not a substitute for reading the paper. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

Transvaginal hydrolaparoscopy (THL) has become a first-line procedure in infertile women, and THL by flexible fiberscope (THLF) is a less traumatic and a more suitable outpatient procedure than diagnostic laparoscopy. We performed THLF on infertile women based on four indications; (i) tubal obstruction and/or peritubal adhesion as suggested by hysterosalpingography (HSG); (ii) serum antibody against Chlamydia (C) positive for trachomatis; (iii) diagnosis of early stage endometriosis; and (iv) unexplained infertility. Seven women with a chief complaint of infertility were the subjects of the present study. Two of the 7 cases had a history of gynecological surgery. Six of 7 cases had a history of C. trachomatis infection. Four cases had abnormal findings of fallopian tubal patency in hysterosalpingography. Parafallopean tubal atresia and tubal obstruction were observed in 4 cases by THLF. In one case the bilateral ovaries were extremely small and atrophic. None of the cases had serious complications after THLF. After the THLF, six women were able to have a baby by assisted reproductive technology (ART) within two years. As THL was developed using a solid scope, indications for THL have been limited, and have excluded cases with retroverted uterus or peritoneal surgical history. In the present study, THL using a fiberscope was carried out in infertile women with retroverted uterus, and in women with a history of peritoneal cavity surgery to examine the feasibility of extending the indications for THL. Findings on the THLF were given precedence in deciding further treatment strategies. We believe that THLF can be useful in helping patients with these indications to successfully achieve early pregnancy. This study is the first trial of THLF.
Full text 2,767 characters · extracted from oa-doi-fallback · 2 sections · click to expand

Keywords

transvaginal hydrolaparoscopy, tubal infertility, endometriosis, assisted reproductive technology, laparoscopy 2011 Volume 58 Issue 4 Pages 99-103 Details

Abstract

Transvaginal hydrolaparoscopy (THL) has become a first-line procedure in infertile women, and THL by flexible fiberscope (THLF) is a less traumatic and a more suitable outpatient procedure than diagnostic laparoscopy. We performed THLF on infertile women based on four indications; (i) tubal obstruction and⁄or peritubal adhesion as suggested by hysterosalpingography (HSG); (ii) serum antibody against Chlamydia (C) positive for trachomatis; (iii) diagnosis of early stage endometriosis; and (iv) unexplained infertility. Seven women with a chief complaint of infertility were the subjects of the present study. Two of the 7 cases had a history of gynecological surgery. Six of 7 cases had a history of C. trachomatis infection. Four cases had abnormal findings of fallopian tubal patency in hysterosalpingography. Parafallopean tubal atresia and tubal obstruction were observed in 4 cases by THLF. In one case the bilateral ovaries were extremely small and atrophic. None of the cases had serious complications after THLF. After the THLF, six women were able to have a baby by assisted reproductive technology (ART) within two years. As THL was developed using a solid scope, indications for THL have been limited, and have excluded cases with retroverted uterus or peritoneal surgical history. In the present study, THL using a fiberscope was carried out in infertile women with retroverted uterus, and in women with a history of peritoneal cavity surgery to examine the feasibility of extending the indications for THL. Findings on the THLF were given precedence in deciding further treatment strategies. We believe that THLF can be useful in helping patients with these indications to successfully achieve early pregnancy. This study is the first trial of THLF. As THL was developed using a solid scope, indications for THL have been limited, and have excluded cases with retroverted uterus or peritoneal surgical history. In the present study, THL using a fiberscope was carried out in infertile women with retroverted uterus, and in women with a history of peritoneal cavity surgery to examine the feasibility of extending the indications for THL. Findings on the THLF were given precedence in deciding further treatment strategies. We believe that THLF can be useful in helping patients with these indications to successfully achieve early pregnancy. This study is the first trial of THLF. © 2012 Kurume University School of Medicine Favorites & Alerts Recently viewed articles

Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below. Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy (via DOI) is the canonical version.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

⚙ Ask this paper AI returns verbatim quotes from the full text · source: oa-doi-fallback ⓘ

Answers must be backed by verbatim quotes from this paper's full text. Hallucinated quotes are dropped automatically; if no verbatim passage answers the question, we say so. How this works

Condition tags

endometriosisinfertility

MeSH descriptors

Infertility, Female Laparoscopy Adult Fallopian Tube Diseases Fallopian Tube Diseases Female Humans Hysterosalpingography Infertility, Female Laparoscopy Laparoscopy Reproductive Techniques, Assisted Vagina

Citation neighborhood (no data yet)

We don't have any in-corpus citations linked to this paper yet. The paper's references may be in our DB but unresolved to ``paper_id`` (resolution happens at ingest when the cited DOI matches a row we already have). Run the cross-source citation reconcile pass to retry.

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-09-17T06:16:55.786923+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:16:54.825375+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-05-14T19:30:52.867331+00:00
License: public-domain-us · commercial use OK · attribution required
Courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine