Transcervical tubal cannulation and salpingoscopy in the treatment of tubal infertility.

Transcervical tubal cannulation and salpingoscopy are two recent techniques used for the evaluation of tubal patency and pathology. Selective tubal cannulation cannot determine the nature of the obstructive process, although it does allow for the demonstration of potential tubal patency. This may be important in deciding whether therapies requiring tubal patency may be used in specific clinical situations. Because currently there are no controlled studies in the literature evaluating this technique, the therapeutic value of the procedure must be considered unproven at this time. Salpingoscopy gives more detailed information concerning the tubal mucosa. The identification of specific tubal lesions has been described with this modality. The predictive value of salpingoscopy in cases of severe anatomic distortion, ie, fibrous obliteration, seems obvious. However, its predictive value in the presence of more subtle lesions needs to be studied further because its role as a therapeutic modality is as yet undefined.