Risk factors for ectopic pregnancy at Lahore General Hospital Lahore

Objective: to determine risk factors for ectopic pregnancy in patients presenting in lahore general hospital,lahore. design: descriptive study place and duration of study: department of obstetrics and gynaecology,lahore general hospital,lahore from 01.08.2009 to 01.08.2010. patients and methods: 56 patients with ectopic pregnancy from emergency and out patient department who were managed surgically,during study period were included. risk factors were asked in history and intra operative findings were recorded on proforma after obtaining informed consent from patients. result: maximum numbers of patients were between 20 - 29 years of age that is 60%. the commonest site of ectopic pregnancy was ampulla of fallopian tube (78.5%). 57% patients were multigravida (p2 or ≥). common risk factors were pelvic inflammatory disease (25%) previous ectopic pregnancy (10.7%),previous surgery (10.7%) and smoking (21.4%) h/o infertility and use of iucd was found in 12.5% and 7.1% alternatively. 53.6% patients were having single factor but 28.6% were having double risk factors. intra operative findings in patients with h/o pid,previous surgery and previous ectopic pregnancy showed that in 61.5% patient other tube was healthy while 23% patients were having salpinx and 15.3% tubo ovarian masses. conclusion: ectopic pregnancy is a life threatening condition in early pregnancy. the increased awareness and knowledge of risk factors will help in an early and accurate diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy. in this study pelvic inflammatory disease,previous ectopic pregnancy. previous pelvic surgery and smoking were major risk factors for ectopic pregnancy. further more,other factors found to be associated with ectopic pregnancy,such as history of infertility,use of intrauterine contraceptive device,previous induced abortion were also responsible due to their affect on pelvic anatomy and tubal health because of infections.