Case Based Discussion of Surgical Approach to Deep Infiltrating Endometriosis

Endometriosis presents a diagnostic challenge as clinical symptoms do not correlate well with the extent of disease [1]. Cramer, et al. [2] found that menstrual cycle length shorter than 27 days, menses longer than 7 days and severe cramping dysmenorrhea were predictive of endometriosis with relative risks of 2.1 (95%CI 1.5-2.9), 2.4 (95%CI 1.4-4.0) and 6.7(95%CI 4.4-10.2) respectively. The study compared 268 women with infertility and laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis with 3794 women admitted for delivery (controls) using a retrospective questionnaire. The study was limited by recall bias and the criteria for laparoscopic diagnosis were not clearly defined. No significant correlation was found with chronic pelvic pain. The issue has been studied prospectively [3,4] in 134 women scheduled for laparoscopy for chronic pelvic pain (CPP). Dyschezia, dyspareunia, and non-menstrual pain were all identified as predictors of deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE) with odds ratios of 3.9 (95%CI 1.7-8.9), 4.6 (95%CI 1.5-14.2) and 2.5 (95%CI 1.1-5.6) respectively. Mrs. SF presented with all of these symptoms to a greater or lesser extent. One criticism of Chapron’s study is that the diagnosis was made on laparoscopic appearance without histological confirmation. Visualization alone has been shown to have a positive predictive value (PPV) for endometriosis of 45% and up to 36% of lesions were down staged on histology [5].