Fluoroscopically-Guided Hysteroscopic Tubal Cannulation: A Procedure for Proximal Tubal Obstruction

Objective(s): To evaluate the cannulation success rate, cumulative pregnancy, and time to intrauterine pregnancy rate following fluoroscopically-guided hystero-scopic tubal cannulation (FHTC) for infertile subjects with proximal tubal obstruction. Methods: This retrospective study evaluated subjects with unilateral or bilateral proximal tubal obstruction on hysterosalpingography, who failed concomitant selective salpingography and subsequently underwent FHTC at the time of a hysteroscopy performed for find-ings seen on sonohysterography. FHTC employed a Novy Catheter (CooperSurgical, Inc, Trumbull, CT.) with or without the 3 French inner catheter and guide-wire, to cannulate the occluded fallopian tube(s), fol-lowed by the injection of Hypaque™ (Amersham Health, Inc, Princeton, NJ.) contrast under C-arm imag-ing. Technical success rates, complications, post-pro-cedure pregnancies, and average time from surgery to pregnancy were evaluated. Results: Thirty-two women between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2019 met the entry criteria and underwent FHTC. Of those women with bilateral obstruction, 6/6 (100%) of subjects achieved at least unilateral patency, while patency was achieved in 23/26 (88.5%) subjects with unilateral obstruction. Twenty-nine of 32 (90.6%) subjects had at least one tube successfully cannulated with 34/38 (89.5%) of proximally obstructed tubes opened. Asymptomatic tubal perforation occurred in 1/38 tubes (2.6%). Ten subjects (34.5%) achieved intrauterine pregnancies without in vitro fertilization in an average of 64.9 days from the procedure. There were no multiple pregnancies and one ectopic pregnancy. Conclusion(s): FHTC is a safe, effective, incision free procedure that results in 90% of tubes successfully cannulated, and an observed short time to intrauterine pregnancy.