Minilaparotomy Female Sterilisation At A Nigerian Tertiary Health Centre

BACKGROUND: Female sterilisation has an important role to play in reducing the high rate of maternal mortality in developing countries.OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence, sociodemographic characteristics, timing, technique, type of anaesthesia, effectiveness and complications associated with minilaparotomy sterilization at the Federal Medical Centre Makurdi, Nigeria.METHODS: A retrospective analysis of the clinical records of 36 patients who accepted female sterilisation by minilaparotomy out of 1346 acceptors of contraceptive methods at the Federal Medical Centre Makurdi over a five year period between November 2002 and October 2007.RESULTS: The incidence of Minilaparotomy female sterilisation was 2.7%. Interval sterilisation was done for 72.2% of patients. Tubal occlusion was achieved with the modified Pomeroy’s technique in all patients. Heavy sedation was used in 69.4% of cases. Effectiveness was 100% with no mortality. Wound infection and anaesthetic complications each occurred in 5.5% of patients.CONCLUSION: Female sterilisation through Minilaparotomy is relatively low at the Federal Medical Centre Makurdi, Nigeria. Training of healthcare providers and scaling up counseling of patients for surgical contraception will improve acceptability.