Diagnostic laparoscopy in female infertility

الملخص EN

-Objective: To highlight the importance of laparoscopic evaluation in the etiology of infertility and to evaluate the etiology in primary and secondary infertility. Methods: This retrospective study included 1233 patients complaining of infertility, 919 patients had primary infertility and 314 patients had secondary infertility.

All had been subjected to diagnostic laparoscopy at the Infertility Center in Al-Batool Teaching Hospital, Mosul. Results: Laparoscopy diagnosed pelvic abnormality in 87.27% of infertile patients which was statistically significant difference comparing to no abnormality detected in 12.73%.

The ratio of positive findings in secondary infertility was significant in comparison with the positive findings in primary infertility.

Single pelvic abnormality detected during laparoscopy among infertility patients was seen in 75.09% of cases and it was statistically different from multiple pelvic abnormalities: 24.91% and it was highly significant among primary infertility patients (77.24%) and among secondary infertility patients (30.87%).

Among all infertile patients, ovarian factor was the most common (66.83%) followed by tubal factor (22.03%), endometriosis (4.46%), pelvic inflammatory disease (2.85%), pelvic adhesion (2.10%) and uterine fibroid (1.73%).

Ovarian factor was highly significant in primary infertility while tubal factor and pelvic inflammatory disease were the highly significant in secondary infertility. Multiple pelvic pathology identified by laparoscopy showed the tubal factors associated with poly cystic ovary in 29.49% of cases (31.66% in primary infertility and 25% in secondary infertility with no significant statistical difference).

Pelvic inflammatory disease associated with other pelvic abnormality 34.09% was highly significant among secondary infertility patients.

Congenital uterine abnormalities were not seen alone, it was seen associated with other causes among primary infertility patients (9 cases 0.72%). Conclusion: Diagnostic laparoscopy is a valuable technique and is a mandatory invasive investigation for complete assessment of female infertility before the couple progresses to infertility treatment especially where assisted reproductive techniques were not available.