Tubal pregnancy in a 'low-risk' population: occasional association with follicular salpingitis.

Long-standing tubal inflammatory lesions occurred in 35 (14%) of 250 tubal pregnancy patients, aged from 14 to 45 yrs, encountered from 1948 to 1969 in an eastern Canadian population where clinically manifest pelvic inflammation is not prevalent and 1/180 is the approximate ratio of ectopic pregnancy to live births. Present in 24 of these 35 patients was follicular salpingitis. For most of the eccyeses, functional derangements appear likely to have been responsible more often than structural alterations of the oviducts; but possible roles for 'physiological salpingitis' in leading to tubal pregnancy may be worthy of investigation.