Recent estimates of the incidence of hysterectomy in New South Wales and trends over the past 30 years

BACKGROUND: Hysterectomy remains one of the frequently used surgical operations on women in Australia despite new therapeutic approaches for most of the common conditions for which hysterectomy is indicated. AIMS: To determine whether the surgical approach to hysterectomy has changed in New South Wales (NSW) over the period 1981 to 2010-2012. DATA AND METHODS: De-identified individual records for hysterectomy patients during the three-year period (January 2010 to December 2012) provided by the NSW Ministry of Health were used. Robotic assistance with surgery was not recorded in the hysterectomy data. Analysis largely involved the method of indirect standardisation. RESULTS: The average annual hysterectomy rate during 2010-2012 was 3.07 per 1000 females per annum; the majority of patients stayed an average of four days in hospital. Total abdominal and vaginal hysterectomies were the two most frequently used procedures. One-in-four procedures involved the use of laparoscopes. Principal diagnoses (in descending order) were disorders of menstruation and other abnormal bleeding, genital prolapse, leiomyoma of uterus, malignant neoplasm of genital organs and endometriosis. While declining trends in hysterectomy rates were noted since 1981, an increasing trend in the use of laparoscopy was evident. CONCLUSIONS: The 45% decrease in hysterectomy rates was indeed the most striking finding of our analysis. This is probably due to the development of alternative nonsurgical procedures such as oral hormone suppression of menstruation and the levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system.