Does hysterosalpingo-foam sonography have any therapeutic effect? A systematic review.

Abstract

Introduction: Tubal patency is one of the mandatory and necessary conditions to be granted in order to guarantee a good pregnancy rate. Numerous studies have been conducted to compare the various testing techniques for tubal evaluation in order to optimize the diagnostic-therapeutic process. Aim of this review is to clarify if hysterosalpingo-foam sonography could be considered as a useful tool not only in the diagnostic procedure, but also in treatment of infertility.

Evidence acquisition: We performed a comprehensive search of relevant studies from January 2010 to December 2019 to ensure all possible studies were captured. A systematic search of PubMed databases was conducted.

Evidence synthesis: Over the years, increasingly less invasive approaches have been used to test tubal patency. For many years Laparoscopic with chromopertubation (DLS) has been considered the reference standard, then less invasive procedures have been introduced, such as hysterosalpingography (HSG). Sonohysterosalpingography (HyCoSy) represents a non-invasive procedure with accuracy comparable to HSG. Several studies have been made on different contrast agents that could be used on this procedure and recent studies considered hysterosalpingo-foam sonography (HyFoSy) procedure as a new technique used for the study of tubal function performed on unfertile women. Nowadays, HyFoSy is largely used in the study of tubal patency, but it is not completely clear the role of this technique as treatment of imperviousness of Fallopian tubes, leading to an increase in pregnancy rate after its use.

Conclusions: As described in the literature for other procedures, similarly with HyFoSy, the tubal flushing improves the chance of an embryo implanting and establishing a spontaneous pregnancy. More prospective studies should be taken to better analyze the singular maternal risk fators, hoping to offer more complete indications to recommend HyFoSy.