Effect of salpingectomy versus tubal ligation on postoperative wound infection in patients: A meta‐analysis

Abstract

AbstractAfter several institutions recommended salpingectomy as opposed to tubal ligation, we attempted to perform meta‐analysis to compare operative properties and rates of postoperative wound infections. There are no temporal or linguistic limitations to our search in PubMed, Cochrane Library and Embase. The search was carried out in September 2023. The database search identified 401 potential studies and five studies were included in the meta‐analysis. Our study involved a comparison of salpingectomy with tube ligating in female patients who wanted to be sterilized. Our trial included at least one result of the wound and haemorrhage. The articles that did not qualify for inclusion or did not submit data, and those who did not answer questions were excluded. Abstracts and full‐text articles were assessed independently by two authors using blinding. Conflicting decisions were settled by consensus. The Cochrane‐recommended ROBINS‐I instrument has been applied to evaluate the risk of bias in clinical trials and to establish the quality of inclusion. Two authors separately evaluated the risk of bias for each trial; differences were settled by consensus. There were no statistically significant differences in the rate of postoperative wound infections among those who had received salpingectomy or tubal ligation (OR, 0.46; 95% CI, 0.18–1.20 p = 0.11). In the three trials, the risk of bleeding following the ligation of the fallopian tubes was lower than that of the salpingectomy group (OR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.21–1.30 p < 0.0001). From this information we have come to the conclusion that it is possible to give preference to tubal ligation for reduction of bleeding in suitable circumstances, and that the findings currently do not provide sufficient evidence for a reduction in the risk of postoperative wound infection.