Tubal Abnormalities in Thai Infertile Females
Supat Sinawat, MD, MSc*, Jeerichuda Pattamadilok, MD*, Kanok Seejorn, MD*
Affiliation : * Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen
Objective : To determine the prevalence of tubal abnormalities among infertile patients attending the clinic
at Srinagarind Hospital.
Design : A descriptive study
Setting : Infertility clinic, Srinagarind Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Thailand.
Subject : A total of 740 female patients presented at the infertility clinic, Srinagarind Hospital between 1
January 1998 and 31 December 2002.
Materials and Methods : A retrospective review of demographic data, baseline infertility information and the
results of tubal assesments (including both hysterosalpingography and laparoscopy) were conducted.
Main outcome measure : Prevalence of tubal abnormalities in infertile females being treated in the infertility
clinic during the study period.
Results : Among the 740 patients being recruited to the present study, 533 cases (72.03%) were diagnosed
with primary infertility while the rest (207 or 27.97%) came to the clinic due to secondary infertility. The
mean infertile period of all study subjects was 4.68 years. Regarding the methods used for tubal assessments,
hysterosalpingography (HSG), laparoscopy and combination of the two methods were conducted in 556
cases (75.14%), 30 cases (4.05%) and 154 cases (20.81%), respectively. The prevalence of tubal abnormalities
demonstrated in the present study was 27.30% (202 from 740 cases). Among the 202 patients with tubal
abnormalities, the pathologies detected were cornual occlusion (46.04%), combined tubal abnormalities
(30.20%), distal tubal occlusion (8.42%), hydrosalpinx (3.47%), peritubal adhesion (3.96%), and other
abnormalities (7.91%). Other pelvic pathologies detected from laparoscopy were endometriosis (61.49%),
pelvic adhesion (24.22%), leiomyoma (12.42%), and ovarian cyst (1.87%).
Conclusion : Tubal abnormalities were detected in over one-fourth of all infertile females being treated at
Srinagarind Hospital. Further study investigating the etiologies of these abnormalities is needed since it
could be the measure to bring down the occurrence of such conditions.
Keywords : Infertility, Uterine tube
