Indication Criteria of Hysteroscopic Surgery for Secondary Infertility due to Symptomatic Cesarean Scar Defect Based on Clinical Outcomes: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Abstract

Hysteroscopic surgery criteria for patients with cesarean scar defect (CSD) are unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the indication of hysteroscopic surgery for secondary infertility owing to CSD. Retrospective cohort study. Single university hospital. Seventy patients with secondary infertility owing to symptomatic CSD who underwent hysteroscopic surgery under laparoscopy between July 2014 and February 2022 were included. Clinical data, including basic patient information, preoperative residual myometrial thickness (RMT), and postoperative pregnancy status, were collected from medical records. Patients were divided into postoperative pregnancy and nonpregnancy groups. A receiver operating characteristic curve was drawn, and the optimal cutoff value was calculated based on the area under the curve to predict pregnancy after hysteroscopic surgery. No complications were observed in any cases. Among the 70 patients, 49 patients (70%) became pregnant after hysteroscopic surgery. There was no significant difference in patient characteristics between the pregnancy and nonpregnancy groups. In the receiver operating characteristic curve analysis for patients aged <38 years, the value of the area under the curve was 0.77 (sensitivity, 0.83; specificity, 0.78) when optimal cutoff of RMT was 2.2 mm. There was a significant difference in preoperative RMT between the pregnancy and nonpregnancy groups (3.3 mm and 1.7 mm, respectively) in patients aged <38 years. For RMT ≥2.2 mm, hysteroscopic surgery was reasonable for secondary infertility owing to symptomatic CSD, particularly in patients aged <38 years.