Home > Encyclopedia of Medicine > Salpingectomy

Definition

Salpingectomy is the removal of one or both of a woman's fallopian tubes, the tubes through which an egg travels from the ovary to the uterus.

Purpose

A salpingectomy may be performed for several different reasons. Removal of one tube (unilateral salpingectomy) is usually performed if the tube has become infected (a condition known as salpingitis).

Salpingectomy is also used to treat an ectopic pregnancy, a condition in which a fertilized egg has implanted in the tube instead of inside the uterus. In most cases, the tube is removed only after drug treatments designed to save the structure have failed. (Women with one remaining fallopian tube are still able to get pregnant and carry a pregnancy to term.) The other alternative to salpingectomy is surgery...