Female sterilisations with Filshie clips: What is the risk failure? A retrospective survey of 30 000 applications

Objective. To assess the failure rate of Filshie clip sterilisations in Victoria, Australia. Design. Retrospective study between 1994 and 1998. Setting. All specialist gynaecologists practising in the state of Victoria, Australia. Interventions. Questionnaires (Lip to three) followed by telephone calls if necessary. Main outcome measures. A response rate of 2761277 (99.6%) was obtained. All pregnancies were recorded. Results. Seventy-three failures were notified from an estimated 30 000 Filshie clip sterilisations carried out in the study period. Conclusions. The estimated failure rate of Filshie clip sterilisations in the state of Victoria carried out by specialist gynaecologists was between 2 and 3 per 1000 sterilisation operations.