COMMON COMPLICATIONS OF HYSTERECTOMY

Some of the common complications associated with abdominal and vaginal hysterectomy, performed in a teaching hospital, are reviewed. Case records of 284 abdominal hysterectomies and 101 vaginal hysterectomies are analyzed.The incidence of blood transfusion and of urinary tract infection was greater following vaginal hysterectomy than abdominal hysterectomy. The morbidity rate of vaginal hysterectomy was two and a half times as great as that of abdominal hysterectomy. Neither the age of the patient nor the factor of previous abdominal or major gynecological surgery influenced the morbidity of vaginal hysterectomy.It is apparent that the preoperative recognition and treatment of urinary tract infection and anemia should reduce the incidence of postoperative morbidity and the use of postoperative blood transfusion in both abdominal and vaginal hysterectomy.