Severe Pain and Postoperative Effects during Hysterosalpingography: A Meta-Analysis

We aimed to evaluate the impact of pain on patients during Hysterosalpingography (HSG).

PubMed, PMC and other journals were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTS) on HSG. Appropriate articles were selected for inclusion and reasonable exclusion according to keywords. Following a thorough review of the relevant literature, the process of literature screening was conducted in accordance with the aforementioned criteria. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the risk of bias assessment tool developed by the Cochrane Collaboration. Meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.4.1 software.

Twelve studies were included, including 1530 cases in the experimental group and 1545 cases in the control group. The literature summarizes the basic information of patients during HSG and makes statistics on the differences in visual analog scale (VAS) and pain perception. The findings from the HSG examination revealed a lack of significant association between patients' pain sensation and their age and BMI. However, the duration of pregnancy in patients decreased following HSG treatment (95%CI (-18.84 to -3.58), P=0.004).Compared with conventional testing, HSG could effectively reduce the pregnancy time of patients (95%CI (-18.84, -3.58), P=0.004), reduce the VAS of patients (95%CI (-4.73, -1.51), P=0.0001), and increase the number of patients without pain (95%CI (1.80, 10.43), P=0.001).

During the HSG examination, acceptable pain avoidance is generated and can be relieved over time. At present, there is no effective alternative method, so the patient should cooperate with the doctor to complete the examination, to relieve the pain.