[Hysterectomy in Norway. Quality of data and clinical practice]

A nation-wide register of discharges from hospitals was used to analyze the practice of hysterectomy in Norwegian hospitals during the three-year period 1988 to 1990. A total of 10.167 hysterectomies were recorded, 20% of them were subtotal hysterectomies. Incidental appendectomy was performed in 4%. Approximately 60 hospitals performed hysterectomy. At 17 hospitals the number was ten or less per year, while at two hospitals more than 200 hysterectomies were performed per year. The national hysterectomy rate was 164 per 100,000 women or 198 per 100,000 women > or = 15 years. The rate is almost 50% higher than a previously reported rate from the period 1977 to 1978, but is still remarkably low compared with the rates reported in the international literature.