Report of a high pregnancy rate after sterilization with the Bleier clip

We investigated a report of a pregnancy rate of 7.3% after tubal sterilization procedures with the Bleier clip in one physician's practice. A review of ongoing clinical investigations of this method of tubal sterilization revealed a failure rate of 0.3%. Our investigation determined that misapplication of the clips was the most probable explanation for the high failure rate, though how the misapplications occurred is not known. The Bleier clip is probably an effective method of tubal occlusion, but close monitoring is needed to determine whether the high failure rate reported here is an isolated instance or a recurrent problem.