The second statistics concerning pelviscopy in Germany included information about 269603 pelviscopies done in 322 general hospitals and 22859 pelviscopies done in 62 private clinics between 1978 and 1982. The participation of 38.7% for general hospitals and of 43.3% for private clinics may be explained by the fact that a major part of the participating clinics keep no detailed documentation on their operative procedures or cannot answer extensive questionnaires for lack of personnel. In general hospitals the rate of serious complications was 1.9% and in private clinics 2.0%. Injuries of large blood vessels topped the list of the complications (36.3% or 43.2%) (Bisler et al. 1980, Erkrath et al. 1979, Cognat et al. 1976, Mintz 1977). The rate of serious complications occurring in general hospitals and private clinics could certainly be lowered by intensifying the training in pelviscopic operation techniques (e.g. with the training phantom according to Semm) and by avoiding risky procedures like high frequency coagulation techniques in endoscopic operations. The predominant technique employed in tubal sterilisation was the bipolar high-frequency current method with 75% in general hospitals and 73.1% in private clinics, followed by the endocoagulation technique, according to Semm (36.8%). Sterilisation failures were reported in 2.6% or 2.5%. Most failures were reported after sterilisation by the bipolar high-frequency technique (3.9%) followed by clip technique (3.7%), and only very rarely in endocoagulation (1.1%). The rate of ectopic pregnancies following sterilisation was 1.06% = 40.6% of the total pregnancy rate after fallopian tube sterilisation or 0.68%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)