Mortality risk associated with tubal sterilization in United States hospitals

Abstract

Despite the millions of women who have undergone tubal sterilization in United States hospitals, little has been published about the risk of death from these procedures. To estimate a case-fatality rate for tubal sterilization, we combined data from the Commission on Professional and Hospital Activities and the National Center for Health Statistics with a review of the clinical circumstances for each woman whose death was identified as being potentially sterilization attributable. Considering all deaths temporally associated with tubal sterilization, we estimate that the case-fatality rate is nearly 8/100,000 procedures. When only deaths determined to be attributable to the sterilization operation per se are considered, the case-fatality rate is approximately 4/100,000 procedures, making death attributable to tubal sterilization a rare event.