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Introduction: Salpingitis is caused by ascending microbes from the lower reproductive tract and contributes to tubal factor infertility, ectopic pregnancy, and chronic pelvic pain. The aim of this study was to analyze if the risk for complications and dissatisfaction after hysterectomy and adnexal surgery was increased in women reporting previous salpingitis.

Material and methods: This is an observational cohort study including women undergoing gynecologic surgery from 1997 to 2020, registered in the Swedish National Quality Register of Gynecologic Surgery (GynOp). Patient-reported previous salpingitis was the exposure. Complications up to 8 weeks and satisfaction at 1 year postoperatively were the outcomes. Multivariable logistic regression and ordinal regression were performed. Results were adjusted for potential confounders including age, body mass index, smoking and year of procedure as well as endometriosis and previous abdominal surgery. Multiple imputation was used to handle missing data.

Results: In this study, 61 222 women were included, of whom 5636 (9.2%) women reported a previous salpingitis. There was an increased risk for women reporting previous salpingitis in both the unadjusted and fully adjusted models to have complications within 8 weeks of surgery (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.22, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.14–1.32). The highest odds ratios were found for bowel injury (aOR 1.62, 95% CI 1.29–2.03), bladder injury (aOR 1.52, 95% CI 1.23–1.58), and postoperative pain (aOR 1.37, 95% CI 1.22–1.54). Women exposed to salpingitis were also more likely to report a lower level of satisfaction 1 year after surgery compared with unexposed women (aOR 0.87, 95% CI 0.81–0.92).

Conclusions: Self-reported salpingitis appears to be a risk factor for complications and dissatisfaction after gynecologic surgery. This implies that known previous salpingitis should be included in the risk assessment before gynecologic procedures.