[Management of retained secundines by hysteroscopy (author's transl)]

Seventy-three patients with retained products of conception were selected from a series of 112 women examined by hysteroscopy, to assess abnormalities of pregnancy. Thirty of the 73 were diagnosed as cases of retained secundines and treated effectively, under hysteroscopic control. This approach has proved to be an effective and a safe procedure for the management of retained secundines. Our study also suggested that traditional therapeutic and/or diagnostic dilatation and curettage (D & C) should be re-assessed and replaced with more effective, simple and safe procedures, such as suction curettage. In these patients with other abnormalities of pregnancy, such as ectopic pregnancy and trophoblastic disease, hysteroscopy does not supplant other diagnostic procedures: rather, it complements them.