Tubal ectopic pregnancy: a retrospective cohort study on clinical characteristics, treatment options and reproductive outcomes within 5 years

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the association between different treatments of tubal ectopic pregnancy (EP) -expectant management, methotrexate (MTX), selected or recommended laparoscopic surgery-and the subsequent reproductive outcomes.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study including 228 EPs. The patients were divided into four treatment groups: 28 (12.3%) with expectant management successfully, 60 (26.3%) with MTX successfully, 140 patients with laparoscopic salpingectomy, of which 47 (20.6%) were assigned to selected surgery group because they opted for surgical treatment versus MTX, 93 (40.8%) were assigned to recommended surgery group as recommended by the attending physician.

Results: The recommended surgery group had the lowest rate of intrauterine pregnancy (IUP) (77.42%) and live birth (LB) (72.04%), while the incidence of recurrent EP (REP) (20.43%) was the highest, but the statistical differences were not significant. We did not observe significant differences of the EP-IUP time interval, rates of LB and miscarriage (MIS) between the four groups. Compared to the MTX group, recommended surgery was negatively associated with IUP (adjusted OR, 95%CI: 0.34, 0.11-1.03) and LB (0.35, 0.14-0.92), while it had higher risk for REP (3.48, 1.03-11.74) in the subsequent pregnancy. Further, compared to selective surgery group, recommended surgery was negatively associated with IUP (0.15, 0.03-0.68) and LB (0.23, 0.07-0.74), while it had higher risk for REP (6.83, 1.43-32.67) in the subsequent pregnancy. Expectant treatment was negatively associated with assisted reproductive technology (ART) (0.08, 0.02-0.40) compared with MTX. Of the185 patients who had LBs, all adverse outcomes were not statistically different between the four groups.

Conclusion: Patients with recommended laparoscopic salpingectomy had worse reproductive outcomes than the other treatment groups. The disease status of EP may play an important role in the association rather than the surgery alone.

Keywords: Ectopic pregnancy; Fertility; MTX; Reproductive outcome; Salpingectomy.