OBJECTIVE: To obtain a profile of inpatient STD-related pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) in the Top End of the Northern Territory.
DESIGN: Review of case records.
SETTING: The Royal Darwin Hospital, the tertiary referral centre for the Top End, during the three years from June 1991 to May 1994.
PATIENTS: All admissions with a diagnosis of STD-related PID.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The presentation and incidence of STD-related PID in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal women.
RESULTS: PID was the reason for 14% of admissions of Aboriginal women and 2% of non-Aboriginal women. Of 175 episodes of PID in 169 patients admitted over the three years of the study, 41 (23%) had gonorrhoea, 64 (37%) had chlamydia and 7 (4%) had both organisms isolated on genital swab. Aboriginal women were more than twice as likely to have gonorrhoea (38% versus 18%; risk ratio, 2.12; 95% confidence interval, 1.27-3.53) as non-Aboriginal women. Median time from first symptoms to presentation was six days. All gonococcal isolates were penicillin susceptible.
CONCLUSIONS: STD-related pelvic inflammatory disease is an important problem among women in the Top End of the Northern Territory. As PID is a preventable illness, further measures aimed at prevention and earlier, more effective treatment of STDs that cause PID are urgently required.