Laparoscopic sterilization with therapeutic abortion versus sterilization or abortion alone.

Records of 606 therapeutic abortions performed by suction curettage, 693 interval laparoscopic sterilizations, and 442 combined procedures were analyzed and compared. The following conclusions were obtained: 1) Abortion alone and abortion with laparoscopic sterilization are similar in rates of postoperative morbidity (4.3 and 7%, respectively) and early complications (3.3 and 2.9%, respectively). 2) The risks in laparoscopic sterilization alone are significantly lower for postoperative morbidity (2.2%) and early complications (0.9%) than for abortion alone or for the combined procedure.