Tubal reversal surgery helps women who have received tubal ligation procedures increase their chances of pregnancy. This procedure involves microsurgical techniques that precisely target segments of the fallopian tubes. Women who receive tubal reversal generally have full recoveries within weeks; the typical surgery lasts no longer than 2 hours.
The Surgical Process
Usually, surgeons who perform a tubal reversal use techniques that minimize pain while maximizing recovery. Patients will often receive a general anesthetic in order to reach a state of complete unconsciousness; other surgeons provide the surgery with the use of local anesthetics instead.
The surgeon will make a small incision above the pubic bone. Local anesthetics are used on both skin and lower abdominal tissue, in order to further reduce pain and increase the speed of patient recovery. The incision near the pubic bone allows the surgeon to gain access to the fallopian tubes, which will then be reconnected.
Reconnecting Procedure
In order to reconnect the fallopian tubes, surgeons must reach the distal and proximal segments which remain separated; the separation occurs after women receive fallopian tube ligation in order to eliminate the chance of becoming pregnant.
Rather than making any further major incisions, surgeons will work to connect the tubes through a less invasive process. A flexible band device will be threaded through the uterine cavity, through both segments of the separated fallopian tubes. This step allows both ends of the newly reconnected tube structure to remain open in order to ensure surgeons of a proper connection.
Sutures are used to reconnect the outer and inner tissues of both ends of the fallopian tube. This step forms a completely connected fallopian tube structure. The band or string-like device then is removed and the patient receives sutures on the pubic bone incision.
This same process happens to both sides of the uterine cavity, since the tubes run on both the right and left side of the structure.
Other Options
Some women receive a different type of tubal ligation procedure in which the tube segment stemming from the uterine cavity is closed off on the end attached to the cavity. Surgeons perform tubal reversal surgery on these patients by adding a new opening to the uterine cavity and reconnecting the fallopian tube if it was disconnected as well. This type of surgery also carries alternative titles, including tubal implantation, uterotubal implantation and tubouterine implantation.
Surgical Objectives
Any of these tubal reversal surgeries work to give women the chance of becoming pregnant. According to several statistics provided by tubal reversal surgeons and firms, more than half of the patients who receive the surgery become pregnant within the first year after receiving the procedure.
By reconnecting the fallopian tube segments, women have the ability to pass eggs through the structure during ovulation. When the fallopian tube is disconnected during tube ligation surgery, women lose this ability, thus leading to a zero percent chance of becoming pregnant.
The surgery does carry some risk and complication, though less than one percent of the women who receive this procedure face serious complications. Women have the ability to receive a tubal reversal in outpatient care centers and hospitals.
