Costs and Benefits of Office Diagnostic Hysteroscopy

In Italy, the main location for performing diagnostic hysteroscopy is the office. The success of office hysteroscopy is related to savings of time and money and the convenience for the physician and patient. We evaluated 4000 diagnostic hysteroscopies performed between January 2, 1989, and March 1, 1996. In 17.8% of these patients we subsequently performed operative hysteroscopies (metroplasty, synechiolysis, myomectomy, polypectomy for polyps >2 cm), and in 5.2% a total abdominal hysterectomy for abnormal uterine bleeding or endometrial cancer. The low percentage of operations underlines the efficacy of office diagnostic hysteroscopy, especially if we evaluate costs and accuracy of this procedure in detecting uterine pathologies.