A 5-year review of intrauterine adhesions at an emerging teaching hospital in Southwestern Nigeria.

Abstract

Background: Intrauterine adhesions (IUAs) (Asherman's syndrome) are closely linked with menstrual irregularities, sub-fertility and   recurrent miscarriages. The care of the condition relies heavily on hysterosalpingography and, more recently, hysteroscopy. Objective: To review intrauterine adhesions at an emerging teaching hospital over a 5-year period Material and Methods: At the gynaecology unit of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department of Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital (EKSUTH), Ado Ekiti, a 5-year retrospective, descriptive research was conducted between 1st of January 2014 to 31st of December 2019. Version 20 of the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to process the data. In order to analyse the data, descriptive statistics was used; continuous variables were summarized with mean and standard deviation, while discrete variables were summarized with numbers and percentages. Results: About 2.7% of the study participants had intrauterine adhesions. The most frequent aetiological factor was dilatation and curettage (84.2%); followed by Caesarean section (5.5%). Secondary amenorrhoea (43.2%) was the most prevalent presenting symptom. Conclusion: Dilation and curettage (D&C) was the commonest aetiological factor for intrauterine adhesions in the study. The goal of prevention is lowering the prevalence of unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion, the cornerstone of which is embracing contraception in all the subsets of age groups in the reproductive age spectrum. Additionally, there is a pressing need to make hysteroscopy widely available and to keep impacting the skills of handling hysteroscopy, manual vacuum aspiration techniques and medical termination of pregnancy across the country.

Keywords: Intrauterine adhesions, teaching hospital, southwest Nigeria