Hysteroscopic Assessment of Tubal Patency: A Randomized Comparison between the Flow and Parryscope Techniques.

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the accuracy of the "Parryscope" and "flow" techniques for hysteroscopic assessment of tubal patency.

DESIGN

Prospective randomized clinical trial.

SETTING

From May to October 2019, women with subfertility undergoing laparoscopic and hysteroscopic surgery at the Medical University of Vienna were invited to participate in the study. The primary outcome was accuracy of Fallopian tube patency relative to the gold standard of laparoscopic chromopertubation.

PATIENTS

Sixty women with subfertility.

INTERVENTIONS

Hysteroscopy with either the "Parryscope" or the "flow" techniques for tubal assessment, directly followed by laparoscopy with chromopertubation.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Hysteroscopic prediction of fallopian tube patency was possible in a statistically significant manner in both study groups (p <0.05). The Parryscope technique achieved higher sensitivity (90.6%, 95% CI: 61.7-98.4) and specificity (100%, 95% CI: 90.0-100.0) than the flow technique (sensitivity: 73.7%, 95% CI: 48.8-90.9 and specificity: 70.7%, 95% CI: 54.5-83.9).

CONCLUSION

Using the Parryscope technique to determine if air bubbles traverse the ostia can provide valuable additional information during hysteroscopy and is more accurate in predicting fallopian tubal occlusion than the flow method.