title: Currently available devices for female sterilization.
abstract: Sterilization is now the method of family planning most commonly used in the world. Over the last 150 years, research has evolved in the search for the ideal method of female sterilization. The procedure should ideally have high efficacy, be readily accessible and be personally and culturally acceptable. The method should be simple, quick, easily learned and be able to be performed in an outpatient setting without general anesthesia. The most common and effective method for sterilization has, thus far, been via the laparoscopic route. Hysteroscopic sterilization, however, potentially fulfills many of these ideal criteria, but until recently has remained more of a concept than a reality.
authors.affiliation: Minimally Invasive Therapy Unit & Endoscopy Training Centre, University Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Royal Free Hospital, Pond Street, Hampstead, London, NW3 2QG, UK. l.chapman@medsch.ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Lynne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chapman
authors.forename: Adam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Magos
mesh_terms: D002425:Cautery / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020702:Hysteroscopes; D020706:Laparoscopes; D019060:Minimally Invasive Surgical Procedures / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D013245:Sterilization, Reproductive / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D013673:Technology Assessment, Biomedical