Background

Hysterectomy is one of the most common gynaecological procedures performed worldwide. The magnitude of the complications related to hysterectomy and their risk factors are bound to differ based on locations, availability of resources and level of surgical training. Documented complications rates and their correlates are reported from high income countries while data from low- and middle-income countries including Tanzania is scare.

Methods

This was a hospital based cross-sectional study conducted at a tertiary facility in northern Tanzania where 178 women who underwent elective gynecological hysterectomies in the department of obstetrics and gynecology within the study period were enrolled. Logistic regression was performed to determine the association between risk factors and occurrence of surgical complication where p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The degree of correlation between pre-operative clinical and histological diagnosis was determined by kappa correlation test.

Results

A total of 75 (42%) of women had surgical complications within 10 days of surgery. Blood transfusion and intra-operative bleeding were the most common complications observed in 34 (19.1%) and 17 (9.6%) women respectively. Independent risk factors for complications included obesity (OR 3.9; 95% CI 1.44–10.46), previous abdominal operations (OR 8.44; 95% CI 2.52–28.26) and longer duration of operation (> 2 h) (OR 5.02; 95% CI 2.18–11.5). Both uterine fibroid and adenomyosis had good correlation of clinical and histological diagnosis (p-value < 0.001).

Conclusion

Bleeding and blood transfusion were the most common complications observed in this study. Obesity, previous abdominal operation and prolonged duration of operation were the most significant risk factors for the complications. Local tailored interventions to reduce surgical complications of hysterectomy are thus pivotal. Clinicians in this locality should have resources at their disposal to enhance definitive diagnosis attainment before surgical interventions