Incidence of pathological factors not revealed by hysterosalpingography but disclosed by laparoscopy in 500 infertile women.

Hysterosalpingography and laparoscopy were performed in 500 infertile women. Results obtained by both techniques were compared. Taking into consideration only the tubal patency, the present study shows an agreement in 90% of cases. In total of 980 fallopian tubes examined, fimbrial conglutination was suspected in 79 tubes (8%) and diagnosed by laparoscopy in 154 tubes (15.7%). Peritubal adhesions with tubal patency are a frequent pathology (23.8%) and hysterosalpingography alone permits the diagnosis in only 68.8% of the cases confirmed by laparoscopy. Other additional findings by laparoscopy are frequent: endometriosis was found in 124 women. Isolated periovarian adhesions were disclosed in 48 women. The high incidence of unsuspected pathology is an additional support in favor of laparoscopy in each case of infertility.