RESUMEN
A 6 year retrospective study was conducted from January 1983 till December 1988. During this period there were 13,014 births, 1,776 registered spontaneous abortions and 200 tubal pregnancies. 1,437 sterilizations were performed in the same period via bipolar electrocoagulation. 11.5% of the ectopic pregnancies were in patients who had previously undergone a tubal sterilization. The failure ratio following bipolar coagulation was 1.18%, and all failures were extra-uterine pregnancies, with an average interval between sterilization and ectopic pregnancy of 28.8 months. This reflects the importance of previous sterilizations as an etiologic agent in ectopic gestations. We will discuss the possible etiological factors for our sterilization failures and how these failures can be avoided or minimized. Also diagnostic difficulties and management of an extra-uterine pregnancy (EUP) following sterilization will be presented.
PIP: A 6-year retrospective study was conducted from January 1983-december 1988. During this time, there were 13,014 births, 1776 registered spontaneous abortions, and 200 tubal pregnancies. 1437 sterilizations were performed in the same period via bipolar electrocoagulation. 11.5% of the ectopic pregnancies were inpatients who had previously undergone a tubal sterilization. The failure ratio following bipolar coagulation was 1.18% and all failures were extrauterine pregnancies, with an average interval between sterilization and ectopic pregnancy of 28.8 months. This reflects the importance of previous sterilizations as a contributing factor in ectopic gestations. The authors discuss the possible etiological factors involved in these sterilization failures and how these could by avoided or minimized. Also, diagnostic difficulties and management of an extrauterine pregnancy (EUP) following sterilizations presented.