[Clinical aspects of vaginal hysterectomy]

From 1971-1982 4,179 hysterectomies have been performed by vaginal route on the department of gynecology and obstetrics of the Klinikum Mannheim. 46.5% of these women were between 20 and 40 years old, 7.2% were older than 60 years. The mean age was 41 years, 5.6% of the patients were nulliparae, 21.0% uniparae and 73.4% multiparae. 4.8% had a history of a previous gynecologic operation, adipositas was present in 8.7%, and a severe varicosis was present in 8%. The most frequent indications were uterus myomatosus (36.2%) and descensus uteri (26.8%). In 62% of all patients only hysterectomy was performed, in 31.4% hysterectomy with an additional colporrhaphy was performed. Morcellation of the uterus was necessary in 3.4%. The most frequent intraoperative complication was the lesion of the bladder in 0.4%. The postoperative morbidity was 15.8%, two third of these patients had an inflammatory disease of the urinary tract. The mortality was 0.07%.