Warm Contrast Media for Pain Reduction During Hystersalpingography

Prospective Randomised Controlled Trian of Warmed vs. Room Temperature Contrast Media for Hystersalpingography

The aim of this study is to compare between body-temperature to room-temperature contrast media used during hysterosalpingography. We hypothesize that warmed medium will reduce pain associated with the procedure.

Infertility occurs in about 15% of all couples. One of the common methods for evaluation of mechanical infertility is hysterosalpingography (HSG). Several reports have shown that this common procedure is associated with moderate pain, i.e. around 5 on a visual analog scale (VAS)of 1-10. It is therefore important to find modes for pain reduction for HSG. According to a report on sonohydrosonograpy, a similar technique using sonography, insertion of media warmed to body temperature into the uterus significantly reduced the pain during the procedure compared with media at room-temprature. The use of room-temperature media is the routine in our institution, as well as in many others. A comparison between the media at different temperatures has not been reported so far. We plan to perform a prospective trial in which patients referred for HSG will be randomized to the procedure using either warmed or room-temperature media. we will asses pain levels using VAS during the procedure.

Inclusion Criteria: Diagnosis: infertility sex: female age: 18-45 Exclusion Criteria: active pelvic inflammotory disease known sensitivity to contrast medium

Nirmal D, Griffiths AN, Jose G, Evans J. Warming Echovist contrast medium for hysterocontrastsonography and the effect on the incidence of pelvic pain. A randomized controlled study. Hum Reprod. 2006 Apr;21(4):1052-4. doi: 10.1093/humrep/dei440. Epub 2005 Dec 22.