Objective: To evaluate the risk of infection after surgical hysteroscopy.
Design: Prospective observational study.
Setting: University hospital.
Patient(s): One thousand nine hundred fifty-two patients requiring operative hysteroscopy during a 10-year period from January 1990 to January 2000.
Intervention(s): Two thousand one hundred sixteen operative hysteroscopies were performed: 782 fibroma resections, 422 polyp resections, 623 endometrectomies, 90 uterine septa sections, and 199 lyses of synechiae.
Main outcome measure(s): Postoperative infectious complications.
Result(s): Thirty (1.42%) infections occurred. There were 18 (0.85%) cases of endometritis and 12 urinary tract infections. No other severe infectious complications were reported. The risk for early-onset endometritis was higher after lysis of synechiae compared with endometrectomy, fibroma, or polyp resections. However, the risk for early-onset endometritis was similar for endometrectomy, septa, fibroma, or polyp resections.
Conclusion(s): Infectious risk following surgical hysteroscopy is low. No major infectious complications occurred. Risk for early-onset endometritis was higher after lysis of synechiae compared with other procedures.