Postoperative infection and surgical hysteroscopy

Objective: To evaluate the risk of infection after surgical hysteroscopy. Design: Prospective observational study. Setting: University hospital. Patient(s): One thousand nine hundred fifty-two patients requiring operative hysteroscopy during a 10-year period from January 1990 to January 2000. Intervention (s): Two thousand one hundred sixteen operative hysteroscopics were performed: 782 fibroma resections, 422 polyp resections, 623 endometrectomies, 90 uterine septa sections, and 199 lyses of synechiae. Main Outcome Measure(s): Postoperative infectious complications. Result(s): Thirty (1.42%) infections occurred. There were 18 (0.85%) cases of endometritis and 12 urinary tract infections. No other severe infectious complications were reported. The risk for early-onset endometritis was higher after lysis of synechiae compared with endometrectomy, fibroma, or polyp resections, However, the fisk for early-onset endometritis was similar for endometrectomy, septa, fibroma, or polyp resections. Conclusion(s): Infectious risk following surgical hysteroscopy is low. No major infectious complications occurred. Risk for early-onset endometritis was higher after lysis of synechiae compared with other procedures. (C) 2002 by American Society for Reproductive Medicine.