Comparison of pain score between Foleys catheter and Leich-Wilkinson cannula in hysterosalpingography by numerical rating scale – A randomized control trial

Hysterosalpingography (HSG) is the first-line investigation in infertility assessment to assess tubal patency. Clinicians use various instruments, including the Leich-Wilkinson cannula, Rubin cannula, Jorcho's cannula, Whitehead cannula, and foley's catheter, to instill the dye in the uterus. We randomly allocated 60 patients planned for hysterosalpingography to evaluate tubal patency as part of fertility workup to either Intra-uterine foley's catheter arm or Leich-Wilkinson cannula arm. The research team measured and compared immediate and delayed numerical pain scores in both arms. We observed significantly lower pain scores in Foley's catheter arm as compared to the Leich-Wilkinson arm for both early (5.7 ± 3.01 vs. 7.8 ± 1.95) and delayed (0.15 ± 0.37 vs. 0.40 ± 0.50) evaluation. We established that using a Foley catheter for the HSG procedure was associated with lesser pain to the patient, with no evident difference regarding imaging of the uterus and tubes.