After the FLUSH trial: A prospective observational study of lipiodol flushing as an innovative treatment for unexplained and endometriosis‐related infertility

Abstract

This study provides further evidence of the efficacy and safety of lipiodol flushing fertility treatment.

Establishment of lipiodol as a fertility treatment – Prospective study of the complete innovative treatment data set

“…The overall pregnancy rate of 44.7% in Johnson et al (2004), 1 Brent et al (2006) 5 and the new cohort (for women under the age of 40 with unexplained and endometriosis-related infertility excluding those who conceived using additional fertility treatment) compares favourably with the nontreatment arm in our original RCT 1 with a pregnancy rate of 16.7%.…”

“…5 Thirteen women (10.5%) from the new cohort of 124 women experienced spasm of the fallopian tubes, uterus or cervix during instillation of the lipiodol, and nine of these (7.3%) experienced severe spasm. However, spasm did not appear to negatively impact subsequent pregnancy outcome; 54% of those experiencing spasm reported a pregnancy within the following six months.…”

“…The data for the new cohort of 124 women are presented alongside those previously published for the first 100 women undergoing an 'innovative' lipiodol procedure 5 and those for the 72 women who received lipiodol in our RCT. 1 Thus, the total population for which procedure and outcome data were available was 296 women.…”

“…Data for the first 100 women in the innovative cohort were presented by Brent et al (2006). 5 The remaining 124, from April 2004 to October 2006, are presented here as the 'new cohort'.…”

“…1 These results were supported by the findings of our observational study of the first 100 women to undergo the procedure after it was offered more widely as an innovative treatment in New Zealand from September 2003. 5 The objective of this observational study was to further examine the efficacy and safety of lipiodol procedures in the second cohort of 124 New Zealand women to undergo the procedure as an innovative treatment from April 2004 to October 2006. Outcome data for this cohort of 124 women will be presented alongside those from our RCT treatment arm 1 and the initial observational study 5 as a complete set of the first 296 lipiodol procedures we undertook as an innovative fertility treatment.…”