Outpatient diagnostic hysteroscopy: analysis of 429 cases.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of outpatient hysteroscopy.


METHODS
Outpatient CO2 hysteroscopy using video-camera for monitoring was performed on 429 patients from November 1995 to December 1996. The indications included post-menopausal bleeding (32.2%), menorrhagia (25.4%), irregular bleeding (24.7%), intermenstrual spotting (10.2%) and others (7.5%).


RESULTS
Hysteroscopy was successfully performed on 420 (97.9%) patients. Although no anaesthetics were used, only two (0.47%) patients complained of severe pain during the procedure. Twenty-one (4.9%) patients had poor view due to submucosal fibroid or bloody view. There were no operative complications. Normal uterine cavity was found in 36.8% and atrophic endometrium in 34.7% of patients. The pathologies included submucosal fibroid (10.7%), endometrial polyp (5.8%) and fibroid polyp (2.8%). Five (1.2%) out of 429 patients were confirmed histologically to have endometrial carcinoma. No malignant lesions were missed. A total of 372 (86.7%) patients had histological confirmation of hysteroscopic findings. In 57 (13.2%) patients, the histological results did not correlate with the hysteroscopic findings.


CONCLUSIONS
Outpatient hysteroscopy and suction curettage is a safe, cost-effective and acceptable procedure.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Kwong Wah Hospital, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
A Y
AY
Wong
K S
KS
Wong
Y H
YH
Lok
A C
AC
Kwok
L C
LC
Tang
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001284:Atrophy / Q000473:pathology; D001706:Biopsy; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D004717:Endometrium / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015907:Hysteroscopy; D007889:Leiomyoma / Q000473:pathology*; D008595:Menorrhagia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010045:Outpatients; D011127:Polyps / Q000473:pathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014592:Uterine Hemorrhage / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D014594:Uterine Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*