Intrauterine Tamponade Balloon for Management of Severe Postpartum Haemorrhage: Does Early Insertion Change the Outcome? A Retrospective Study on Blood Loss.

The French College of Gynecologists and Obstetricians (CNGOF) recommends the use of intrauterine tamponade balloon (IUTB) in postpartum haemorrhage for bleeding that is refractory after sulprostone before either surgery or interventional radiology. However, the elapsed time between uterotonic drug injection and the insertion of intrauterine tamponade balloon was not reliably assessed. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the role of the timing of IUTB insertion and to assess the correlation between the time of insertion and outcome. METHODS: A retrospective study in two tertiary care centres, including patients transferred for severe PPH management. RESULTS: A total of 81 patients were included: 52 patients with IUTB inserted before 15 min (group 1) and 29 patients with IUTB inserted after 15 min (group 2). The mean volume of blood loss in the group of patients with IUTB inserted before 15 min was significantly lower than in group of patients with IUTB set after 15 min. CONCLUSION: An IUTB could be inserted simultaneously with a uterotonic agent, within 15 min and not after 15 min as suggested by local guidelines, but further prospective studies are required to confirm this.

Pregnancy after laparoscopic hysteropexy: Is there a prolapse recurrence?

Laparoscopic hysteropexy is a surgery of choice for woman with pelvic organ prolapse wishing to retain fertility. There are few cases of pregnancies after this surgery as standard practice recommends to fulfil their family project before undergoing laparoscopic prolapse surgery. Our operative technique involves the use of 2 polypropylene meshes, one placed anteriorly and one posteriorly, they are attached to the cervix and together through the cervix. There is no compression on the uterine arteries as we do not encircle the cervix and there is no concern on blood flow to the uterus. The patient had a gestational diabetes with an oversize baby in breech position. A caesarean section was planned due to the babies' position and weight. The patient delivered a healthy baby and 10 months after the surgery the patient did not have recurrence of pelvic organ prolapse.

Impact of surgery for colorectal endometriosis on postoperative fertility and pregnancy outcomes.

INTRODUCTION: Deep infiltrative endometriosis can lead to infertility with a spontaneous pregnancy rate between 8.7 and 13%. Surgical treatment of bowel endometriosis may improve spontaneous and ART fertility. The aim of this study was to evaluate post-operative fertility according to the surgical technic used (shaving vs. bowel resection). MATERIAL AND METHOD: A retrospective, monocentric study was carried-out in the University Hospital of Strasbourg, France, from September 2009 to October 2016. All patients with a desire to become pregnant and treated for colorectal deep infiltrating endometriosis were included. Two groups were analyzed and compared: shaving treatment vs. digestive resection (discoid or segmental). The primary outcome was pregnancy rate after surgery. Secondary outcomes were: mode of pregnancy occurrence (spontaneous versus ART), time of onset, term at birth, occurrence of complications during pregnancy. RESULTS: 94 patients were included (39 had a bowel resection and 55 a shaving). Both groups had similar pre-operative characteristics. The pregnancy rate was 52,1% for the total population with no significant differences between the two groups (p = 0.68). However, we found a significantly higher spontaneous pregnancies rate among the resection group with 73.7% (p = 0,0086). Pregnancy complications occurred in 50% of pregnancies, regardless of the surgical technic used. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that, for patients with colorectal DIE, surgical treatment improves overall fertility. Furthermore, resection surgery seems to significantly improve the occurrence of spontaneous pregnancies. However, this surgery is not without risks and multidisciplinary discussions and thorough information to the patient are a prerequisite.

Bowel resection performed by gynecologists - Outcomes and learning curves. Activity profile in a Gynecology Department: 7-year observational cohort.

OBJECTIVE: Bowel resection is frequently used when performing oncological surgery to obtain complete cytoreduction or to remove endometriosis in case of intestinal invasion. Acquiring the surgical skills to perform this kind of procedure is crucial to offer to our patients an optimal management. The aim of this study is to describe a 7-years surgical experience in bowel resections of a gynecologic surgeon and to determine his learning curves. STUDY DESIGN: This is a monocentric retrospective cohort study reporting digestive resection performed between January 2013 and April 2020 in the Gynecology Department of Strasbourg University Hospital. Ninety-one consecutive patients were assigned in two groups: gynecological cancer (n = 44) and deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE) (n = 47). The main outcome measure was the postoperative complications rate at 30 days, based on the modified Clavien-Dindo severity system. Learning curves were evaluated using cumulative sum (CUSUM) analysis of operative time and risk-adjusted cumulative sum (RA-CUSUM) analysis of severe perioperative complications. Identification of predictive factors for operation duration and severe perioperative complication occurrence was conducted using multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Minor complications were found in 25% of cases. Major complication rate (Clavien-Dindo ≥ IIIa) was 14% in total and only involved patients operated for cancer. The CUSUM curve for operative time peaked at the 35th case and showed a downward slope after the 45th case. Significant predictive factors of operating time were cytoreductive tumoral surgery, size of the bowel resection and laparoscopic surgery, while learning phase 3 significantly decreased it. The RA-CUSUM curve for severe perioperative complications (Clavien-Dindo ≥ IIIa) showed a progressive decrease in the complication rate as the number of interventions increases without showing clear inflection points. Only cardiopulmonary pathologies were found as significant predictive factor of severe complications. CONCLUSION: Proficiency in performing highly complex surgery was achieved after approximately 45 cases, cancer and DIE all together. Acceptable rates of severe perioperative complications were observed even during the initial learning period and are comparable with those found in the literature concerning bowel resection performed by gynecologic oncologists but also by general and digestive surgeons.