Tubal Infertility in Srinagarind Hospital

Abstract Objective: To determine the prevalence of tubal abnormalities among infertile patients treated at  Srinagarind Hospital. Design: A descriptive study Setting: Infertility clinic, Srinagarind hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Thailand. Subject: Total of 523 female patients being treated at infertility clinic, Srinagarind hospital between  1 January  1998 to31  December 2000. Method: A retrospective review of demographic data, baseline infertility information and the results of tubal assesments (including both hysterosalpingography and laparoscopy) were conducted. Main outcome measure: Prevalence of tubal abnormalities in infertile females being treated in our infertility clinic during the study period. Results: Among the 523 patients being recruited to this study, 387 cases (74.0%) were diagnosed with primary infertility while the rest (136 patients or 26.0%) came to the clinic due to secondary infertility. The mean infertile period of all study subjects was 5.0 years. Regarding the methods used for tubal assessments, hysterosalpingography (HSG), laparoscopy and combination of the two methods were conducted in 417 cases (79.7%), 18 cases (3.4%) and 88 cases (16.8%), respectively. The prevalence of tubal abnormalities demonstrated in this study was 26.8 % (140 from 523 cases). Among the 140 patients with tubal abnormalities, the pathologies detected were cornual occlusion (42.8%), combined tubal abnormalities (32.9%), distal tubal occlusion (9.3%), hydrosalpinx (5.7%), peritubal adhesion (5.7%), and other abnormalities (3.6%). Other pelvic pathologies detected from laparoscopy were endometriosis (55.7%), pelvic adhesion (27.4%), leiomyoma (12.3%), and ovarian cyst (0.9%). Conclusion: Tubal abnormalities was detected in over one-fourth of all infertile females being treated at Srinagarind hospital.  Furhter study investigating the etiologies of these abnormalities is needed since it could be the measure to bring down the occurrence of   such conditions.