[Consequences of sexually transmitted diseases in women: salpingitis]

Sexually transmitted disease plays a predominant role in both acute salpingitis and in chronic silent salpingitis. Chlamydia trachomatis appears to be the agent most frequently involved in both cases, but we must not underestimate the role of gonococcus, Mycoplasma and opportunistic bacteria. The tendency of Chlamydia trachomatis to cause sub-clinical, sub-acute and even chronic infections raises a number of questions concerning the real criteria of cure of an acute salpingitis and the possibilities of early detection of such infections when they are chronic from the start, as these infections are as equally important as acute salpingitis in the pathogenesis of tubal sterility.