Physicians urged to adopt office hysteroscopy.(Gynecology)

SANTA FE, N.M. -- One hundred thirty-five years after Pantaleoni performed the first hysteroscopy, Stephen M. Cohen, M.D., urged physicians to move the diagnostic procedure from the operating room to the office.

New technology makes office hysteroscopy more effective, less expensive, safer, and easier to perform than invasive diagnostic alternatives, according to Dr. Cohen, chief of the division of gynecology and director of women's minimal access surgery at Albany (N.Y.) Medical College. Fertility investigations and some simple surgical procedures can be done in the office with hysteroscopy, he said at a conference on gynecologic surgery sponsored by Omnia Education.

"I think all of us in the next 5 years will be doing hysteroscopic sterilizations in the office," Dr. Cohen said, citing avoidance of intraabdominal complications and general anesthesia with hysteroscopy. "The laparoscopic sterilization will be a procedure of the past or used in very selected cases."

Office hysteroscopy is especially useful for direct diagnosis of the cause of abnormal uterine bleeding, according to Dr. Cohen, who has served on the speakers' bureau for Karl Storz, which manufactures hysteroscopes.

"So many patients have submucous fibroids," he said. "You can put the scope in and see those .... You can see endometrial polyps and take them out if you like."

Dr. Cohen described the basic equipment for office hysteroscopy as relatively simple--a scope, a light source, a camera, and a monitor. He said they could be purchased ...