Laparoscopic sterilization under local anesthesia with conscious sedation versus general anesthesia: Systematic review of the literature

Female sterilization is the most popular and common contraceptive method worldwide. Because hysteroscopic sterilization techniques are used less often due to side effects, the number of laparoscopic sterilization is increasing. A systematic overview concerning the most optimal anesthetic technique for laparoscopic sterilization is lacking. We performed a systematic review to compare conscious sedation with general anesthesia for laparoscopic sterilization procedures with respect to clinical relevant outcome measures, such as operating times, perioperative parameters and complications, patient comfort, recovery, and patient satisfaction. We searched Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, MEDLINE, and EMBASE for randomized controlled trials comparing general anesthesia with conscious sedation for laparoscopic sterilization. Two authors (AGH and HAAMvV) abstracted and entered data into RevMan. Methodologic quality of the included trials was critically appraised. For our main outcome measures mean differences (continuous variables) and risk ratios (dichotomous variables) with 95% confidence intervals using random-effect models were calculated. Four randomized controlled trials were included comparing general anesthesia versus local anesthesia with conscious sedation for laparoscopic sterilization. The methodologic quality of the studies was moderate to good. Both techniques were comparable with regard to operating times, complications, and postoperative pain. However, local anesthesia with conscious sedation showed better results compared with general anesthesia with respect to recovery times, patient complaints of sore throat, and patient recovery and satisfaction. In conclusion, this systematic review about anesthetic techniques for laparoscopic sterilization showed that both general anesthesia and conscious sedation have no major anesthetic complications and may therefore be safe. Patients might benefit from conscious sedation in terms of recovery times, sore throat, and patient recovery and satisfaction, but only a few studies are included in the review and are relatively old. New research regarding this subject is needed to advise our patients most optimally in the future about the best anesthetic technique to be used when choosing for a laparoscopic sterilization procedure.