Clinical results of terminal salpingostomy with the use of the CO2 laser: report of the Intraabdominal Laser Study Group.

Forty-eight women underwent terminal salpingostomies with a standard operative procedure with the use of the CO2 laser and microsurgical techniques at five centers. Early second-look laparoscopy was performed in all patients 1 to 12 weeks after the laparotomy. The tubal patency rate at the second look was 92% for these 48 patients, with a minimum of 6 months' follow-up study in all patients. Of these patients, ten became pregnant (21%), one with an ectopic pregnancy (10%). All pregnancies occurred within 12 months of the second-look procedure. It is preliminarily concluded from this series that use of the CO2 laser for neosalpingostomy at laparotomy with early second-look laparoscopy provides a term pregnancy rate similar to that previously achieved by nonlaser microsurgical techniques and shortens the time period between the surgical procedure and when conception would be expected to occur.