Opportunistic salpingectomy during postpartum contraception procedures at elective and unscheduled cesarean delivery

To compare intra- and postoperative surgical complications of opportunistic bilateral total salpingectomy during postpartum permanent contraception procedures in elective and unscheduled cesarean delivery.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study (2010-2017) of women who had postpartum permanent contraception procedures during cesarean delivery, and we collected baseline characteristics, scheduling of delivery (elective versus unscheduled), operative time, estimated blood loss (EBL) and surgical complications (bleeding, iatrogenic injury, infection, anemia and relaparotomy). We classified patients according to contraceptive technique: bilateral total salpingectomy, bilateral partial salpingectomy with or without fimbriae, and other methods.

Five hundred twenty-eight women underwent postpartum permanent contraception procedures, 245 (46.4%) had bilateral total salpingectomy, 239 (45.3%) had bilateral partial salpingectomy, and 48 (8.3%) underwent other methods. We did not find differences in baseline characteristics, operative time and EBL among postpartum permanent contraception groups. Unscheduled cesarean delivery did not influence the choice of postpartum permanent contraception technique (p=.22). Postpartum permanent contraception-related intraoperative bleeding occurred in 1 (0.4%) and 2 (0.9%) patients, respectively, in bilateral total and partial salpingectomy group (p=.23). Postoperative complications were 13 (5.3%) and 6 (2.5%), respectively, in bilateral total and partial salpingectomy groups (p=.11). Subgroup analysis confirmed no differences for intra- and postoperative complications during unscheduled cesarean delivery. We noted a 4.3-min increase in operative time for total salpingectomy after multivariate analysis (p<.01).

At maternal request for postpartum permanent contraception during cesarean delivery, bilateral total salpingectomy can be a safe and feasible method even in case of unscheduled cesarean delivery.

Our results suggest that bilateral total salpingectomy during any cesarean delivery may be an acceptable choice for its higher contraceptive efficacy and risk-reduction effect for ovarian cancer, at the price of a small increase in operative time.