Tubectomy by paraprofessional surgeons in rural Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, social as well as economic factors strongly favour the use of women over men; and of papaprofessionals over qualified physicians, for tubectomy surgery. Of 600 tubectomies carried out in three centres, 366 were performed by female paraprofesional workers with an average of only two months' part-time training in tubectomy surgerymthe rest were performed by qualified physicians. The infection-rate in tubectomies done by paraprofessionals was 5-5%; in those performed by physicians it was 6-4%. Comparison of other factors indicates that the results of paraprofessionals were in no way inferior.