Two decades of minilaparotomy female sterilisation at the university of benin teaching hospital.

Objective: To evaluate female sterilisation through minilaparotomy approach in University of Benin Teaching Hospital over a 20-year period.

Study Design, Setting And Subjects: This was a retrospective study in which the case notes of 156 clients who accepted permanent method of contraception out of 14771 acceptors of family planning methods in the University of Benin Teaching Hospital between January 1985 and December 2004 were retrieved and analyzed for socio-demographic characteristics of the clients, timing, technique, type of anaesthesia used and the complications associated with the procedure.

Results: The incidence of female sterilisation was 1%, mean age and parity were 36.9 +/- 3.6years and 6.4 +/- 1.6 respectively. 80.8% had interval sterilisation and the tubal occlusion was mainly by Pomeroy's technique. Local anaesthesia under heavy sedation was used in 85.9% of the clients. Surgical complications occurred in 3.24% and were uterine perforation, bladder and intestinal injuries and bleeding from the fallopian tube and the mesosalpinx. 3.85% had wound infection and 1.94% anaesthetic complications. Effectiveness was 100% and there was no mortality.

Conclusion: Our institution would need to scale up counseling of clients for permanent method of contraception to improve on the poor acceptability. Careful surgical techniques with local anaesthesia alone or with light sedation and adherence to infection prevention practices would reduce the incidence of surgical, anaesthetic complications and wound sepsis that would ensure client satisfaction.