Abstract

This research aims to study the findings from diagnostic laparoscopy among infertile women managed in a secondary healthcare center in Nigeria. This is a prospective study of eighty infertile women who had diagnostic laparoscopy in a secondary healthcare facility in Nigeria. The age range of the women was 24 to 45 years with most of them belonging to the parity group of 0 to 1 (90.0%; n=0.72). Primary infertility accounted for 43(53.8%) of cases, whereas the mean duration of infertility was 4.3+/- 2.4 years. Fifty-seven (71.3%) of the women had abnormal findings at laparoscopy. This comprised mainly of tubal pathologies (63.8%, n=51), pelvic adhesions (33.8%, n=27) and uterine fibroids (31.3%, n=25). Tubal occlusion was found in 39(48.8%) of the women, compromised bilateral tubal occlusion in 12(15.0%) and unilateral tubal occlusion in 27(33.8%) of cases. Distal tubal occlusion accounted for 24(30.0%) while proximal tubal occlusion was seen in 15(18.8%) of cases. While there were 21(26.3%) cases of polycystic ovaries, there was no significant difference in prevalence of abnormal laparoscopy (p=0.8), tubal pathology (p=0.5) and tubal occlusion (p=0.18) with respect to the type of infertility. There was a high rate of abnormal laparoscopy findings among the studied women which were mainly tubal occlusion and pelvic adhesions. These findings indicate the need to incorporate laparoscopy in the initial evaluation of all infertility cases in our environment.

Key words: Abnormal laparoscopy findings, Nigerian infertile women, Nnewi secondary health care centre.