Hysteroscopy combined with laparoscopy in treatment of patients with post-cesarean section uterine diverticulum

INTRODUCTION: Post-cesarean section uterine diverticulum (PCSUD) is a recess in the lower uterine segment of the cesarean section incision that protrudes to the serosa due to healing defects. With the abolition of the one-child policy, allowing couples to have two children in the past year in China, more and more couples plan to give birth to a second baby. However, with the significant increase in the cesarean section rate in the past two decades in China, the incidence of PCSUD also obviously increased. AIM: To evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of hysteroscopy combined with laparoscopy in treatment of patients with PCSUD. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifty-two cases of patients with post-cesarean section uterine diverticulum (PCSUD) who suffered from conservative treatment failure in the Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital (affiliated to Beijing Capital Medical University) between January 2012 and June 2017 were retrospectively analyzed in this study. Patients with reproductive requirements were treated with hysteroscopy combined with laparoscopy surgery (experimental group, n = 31); those without reproductive requirements were treated with hysteroscopic surgery (control group, n = 21). The operation time, intraoperative blood loss, hospital stay period, clinical efficacy and recurrence rate of the two groups were compared. RESULTS: All the patients successfully completed the operation procedure in both experimental and control groups. The operation time, intraoperative blood loss and post-operative hospital stay in the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in clinical efficacy or recurrence between the two groups (p > 0.05). Six months after the operation, the uterus muscularis thickness was 4.2 ±1.9 mm and 9.8 ±6.2 mm for control and experimental groups respectively, which indicates that the muscularis thickness in the experimental group was significantly greater than that of the control group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Hysteroscopy combined with laparoscopy was safe with satisfactory results in treatment of patients with PCSUD.