A comparative study of the tubal ring applied via minilaparotomy and laparoscopy in postabortion cases.

Sterilization with tubal rings applied via minilaparotomy or laparoscopy was performed on 300 randomly selected postabortion subjects to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the two surgical methods. One hundred and forty-nine procedures were performed by minilaparotomy and 151 by laparoscopy. Gas leakage due to equipment problems was the most common technical difficulty during laparoscopy, and difficulty in exteriorizing the tubes was the most common surgical difficulty. Women undergoing laparoscopy experienced significantly less pain during surgery and had significantly lower rates of immediate and early postoperative complications than those women undergoing minilaparotomy. The rates of gynecologic abnormalities at six and 12 months were similar for both procedures. At this writing, no pregnancies have been reported among the study subjects. The results of our study indicate that laparoscopy is superior to minilaparotomy when it is performed in a controlled hospital situation.