Objective: To determine the effect of increasing experience in fluoroscopically guided selective salpingography and tubal catheterization on radiation doses and screening times, thus establishing a learning curve for the procedure.
Design: Retrospective case note analysis.
Setting: IVF center of an academic teaching hospital.
Patients: Three hundred sixty-six patients with infertility seen over 3.5 years.
Intervention(s): Fluoroscopically guided selective salpingography and tubal catheterization.
Main outcome measure(s): Reductions in radiation doses and screening times for different categories of selective salpingography and tubal catheterization, expressed as percentage reductions during the study period and reductions per 10 procedures.
Result(s): During the study period, The median dose of radiation decreased by 62.6%-71.9%, and the median screening time declined by 61.5%-78.5%. Reductions per 10 procedures were 2.5%-4.2% and 2.7%-5%, respectively.
Conclusion(s): Significant reductions in radiation doses and screening times start early in a clinical team's practice of selective salpingography and tubal catheterization and continue even as trainees are added to the pool of operators.