Neurologic symptoms and hysterectomy: a retrospective survey of the prevalence of hysterectomy in neurologic patients.

Eleven percent of the 272 women aged 25-45 years admitted consecutively to a neurologic department in 1980-1984 had undergone hysterectomy. The population was divided into two groups according to the discharge diagnoses. Among women with discharge diagnoses usually associated with no objective neurologic findings, the frequency of hysterectomy was 14%, compared with 5.4% in women discharged with diagnoses indicating organic neurologic disease. Gynecologic and psychiatric admissions were more frequent in the former than in the latter group. Of the 30 hysterectomized women, only six had had malignant or premalignant changes in the uterus, whereas in 22 cases the removed organs had been normal. These results suggest that a somatization disorder might have been the underlying cause for the hysterectomy as well as for the symptoms and complaints leading to referral to the neurologic service. Awareness of this problem is important in order to avoid unjustified surgery.