Infertility surgery for pelvic inflammatory disease: success rates after salpingolysis and salpingostomy.

Eighty-seven patients with infertility due to pelvic inflammatory disease were retrospectively studied to determine pregnancy rates after infertility surgery. Patients were divided into two groups on the basis of the type of surgical procedure: group 1, lysis of adhesions only (22 patients); group 2, terminal salpingostomy with lysis of adhesions (65 patients). A significantly greater number of patients in group 1 (nine of 22, 41%) than in group 2 (12 of 65, 18%) (p less than 0.05) achieved intrauterine pregnancy. The incidence of ectopic pregnancy was 23% in group 1 (five of 22) and 9% in group 2 (six of 65) (p = 0.12). Almost all pregnancies that were conceived more than 16 months after operation were ectopic gestations. Patients were classified according to severity of disease on the basis of several factors. Although few patients with severe pelvic inflammatory disease conceived after operation, the effect of disease severity on the likelihood of successful operation was not statistically significant.