[Validity of hysteroscopy in clinical setting: single centre analysis of 605 consecutive hysteroscopies].

OBJECTIVE: Hysteroscopy represent standard diagnostic and therapeutic method in the treatment of endometrial pathology, where patient selection for this procedure depends in majority on preoperative uterine ultrasound scan. Hysteroscopy can be used for removal of polyps or myomas, endometrial tumor resection, synechiolysis, sterilisation or removal of remnants from pregnancy. Hysteroscopic surgery can be also an option for patients who wish to preserve the uterus for the treatment of recurrent bleeding. We aimed to evaluate the validity, complication rate and accuracy of hysteroscopy in correlation with preoperative ultrasound and postoperative histopathological findings.

SETTING: Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Jessenius Medical Faculty, Commenius University, Martin, Slovak Republic.

SUBJECT AND METHOD: Retrospective analysis of hysteroscopies for period of 24 months.

RESULTS: During study period a total of 605 hysteroscopies were performed. In three (0.5%) cases we did not acquired sufficient bioptic material required for histopathological diagnosis, thus only 602 cases were included in the final analyses. The most frequent indication for hysteroscopy was history of postmenopausal bleeding (35.88%), followed by endometrial polyp (30.9%), hyperplasia (28.24%), cervical polyp (2.32%), corpus alienum in the uterus (1.66%) and fertility disorders (1%). Multifactorial analysis of hysteroscopy, ultrasound and histopathological findings revealed 69.41% sensitivity rate for ultrasound finding of endometrial hyperplasia, 48.16% sensitivity rate for submucous myoma and 81.72% sensitivity for endometrial polyp. The last group of patients showed the highest correlation rate (r)=0.41, p<0.01. The false pozitivity of preoperative ultrasound was 30.59%, 51.84% and 18.28% for mentioned groups, respectively. The association between hysteroscopic and histopathological results showed a 97.1% agreement in patients with endometrial polyp and 89.3% agreement for cases with endometrial hyperplasia (p<0.05). In 66.45% was hysteroscopy associated with biopsy or curretage. The causally surgery (tumor or endometrium ablation, myoma or septum resection) was performed in 27.9% and in 5.65% others types of intrauterine hysteroscopic sugery were done. Out of all surgical procedures polyp ablation represented 63.2%, resection of submucous fibroids 21.2%, endometrial resection or ablation 7.2% and 8.4% others procedures. In studied population we diagnosed 18 (3%) cases of endometrial carcinoma (13 cases associated with hyperplasia, 5 with polyp). Complication rate was 0.66%. Diagnostic hysteroscopic procedures were associated with a significantly lower complication rate (0.19%) than operative procedures (0.82%; p<0.05). The most frequent surgical complication was perforation of the uterine cavity (three cases 0.50%), followed by fluid overload syndrome (0.17%).

CONCLUSION: Hysteroscopy is safe diagnostic and operative method with high sensitivity, particularly for endometrial polyps. The validity of sonography in case of hyperplasia prior surgery could be improved by control uterine ultrasound scan reflecting cycle phase one-two days before surgery.