Clinical factors and surgical decision-making when managing premenopausal women with adnexal torsion.

Purpose: The primary objective of this study is to identify if and which clinical factors may influence surgical decision-making when managing premenopausal women who present emergently with adnexal torsion (AT).

Methods: This retrospective cohort study was conducted at a single tertiary hospital. Medical records for all admissions for AT between 1 January 2010 and 30 June 2020 were reviewed and data regarding patient demographics, history of torsion, and the index admission were collected. Conservative surgery was defined as detorsion only or detorsion with cyst decompression. Interventional surgery was defined as ovarian cystectomy, salpingectomy, oophorectomy or salpingo-oopherectomy.

Results: 126 women were included for final analysis. Of the 109 women diagnosed with AT at emergency surgery, 12 were postmenopausal (all had interventional surgery). In the 97 premenopausal women, 50 (52%) underwent conservative surgery. Pregnant women were more likely to undergo conservative surgery than non-pregnant women (Relative Risk [RR] 0.20, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.5, 0.75, p = 0.001). Women having laparoscopies were also more likely to undergo conservative surgery (RR 0.08, 95% CI 0.01, 0.53, p = 0.001) than if they had laparotomies. Although not reaching statistical significance, women were more likely to undergo laparotomy if they were febrile or if a senior gynecology consultant was involved in their care. History of torsion, age, parity and ovarian size did not alter the risk of interventional surgery.

Conclusion: This study identified that premenopausal women who presented emergently with AT were significantly more likely to have conservative surgery if they were pregnant or if they underwent laparoscopic surgery.