The safety of field tubal sterilization: a cohort study.

A cohort study on female sterilization has been carried out to compare the safety of field-based procedures with hospital-based procedures. A total of 217 women were recruited, consisting of 103 field-based and 114 hospital-based acceptors. Married and healthy women 20-45 years of age, having at least two living children, not obese, no history of major abdominal surgery, no signs of acute pelvic inflammatory disease, and no contraindication to ketamin were included in the study. Women with severe pelvic adhesions encountered during surgery were excluded from the study. The ambulatory procedure was used for all acceptors except those who were sterilized in hospital immediately after delivery. They were asked to come to th Sarjito Hospital (hospital-based) or Puskesmas (primary health care center or field-based), after fasting the night before. Ketamin, 50-100 mg, was used intravenously for general anesthesia. Minilaparotomy followed by the Pomeroy method was used for standard female tubal sterilization. Tetracycline, 3 x 500 mg was given for five days prophylactically. Follow-up was carried out one and six weeks after the day of operation. Data were processed with an IBM-compatible PC, using version 3.0 SPSS program. Students t-test, chi-square test and relative risk (95% confidence limit (CL)) were used for statistical analysis. Both groups were comparable in terms of age, parity, body weight, and body height. The duration of operation in the field was somewhat longer than that in the hospital, i.e. 24.58 vs 21.14 minutes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)