Comparison of three types of tubal sterilisation: the medan experience

Three methods of tubal sterilisation, viz. laparoscopy, culdoscopy and minilaparotomy, were evaluated in a trial involving 300 voluntary acceptors at the University Hospital in Medan, Indonesia. Equal numbers of women were randomly assigned to the three surgical groups. The results showed little differences among patients in the three groups for age, number of living children, contraceptive and abortion histories and pre-existing medical conditions. As expected, average surgical time for minilaparotomy was significantly higher than the times reported for the endoscopic techniques. Minilaparotomy also produced the highest incidence of operative complications while culdoscopy accounted for the highest rate of hospitalisation following operation. Four-year follow-up of the patients revealed only one case of pregnancy in the culdoscopy group, three years after tubectomy .