Chronic endometritis. A comparative clinicopathologic study.

A study was undertaken to document the clinical characteristics of p atients with chronic endometritis and to determine whether these charact eristics are similar in patients from 2 different geographic areas. The groups of pateints consisted of 100 examples of chronic endometritis encountered over a 4-year period ending December 31 1971 at the San Jose Hospital Medical School Bogota Colombia and 52 patients with the diagnosis established during an 18-month period ending the same date at the St. Louis University Hospitals St. Louis Missouri. The histologic diagnosis was based solely upon the presence of plasma cells and the severtiy of symptomatology. The most common symptoms were menstrual disturbances present in virtually every patient and pelvic pain or tenderness found in 50% of the women. Chronic endometritis could be attributed to a specific etiologic factor in 84% of the patients: pelvic inflammatory disease in 25% IUDs in 14% postpartum factors in 12% and postabortal factors in 41%. The findings indicated that chronic endometritis is a real clinicopathologic entity with a demonstrable cause in most instances. Patinets from the 2 widely separated geographic areas showed a strikingly similar range of associated conditions the relative frequency of postabortal endometritis in Colombian patients representing the only significant difference in the lesions. The difference is probably a reflection of the populations served by the 2 institutions rather than any fundamental difference in pathogenesis.(AUTHORS MODIFIED)