Ten-year Evaluation of Endometriosis Laparoscopic Findings And the Chief Complaints in Tehran's Najmieh Hospital

In the recent few years endometriosis has been identified as the third common gynecologic disease among the women aged 15 to 44 years old having been discharged from the hospitals. Not only does this disease cause pains, dysmenorrheal, abnormal bleeding and infertility, but also it reduces the quality of life and produces depression leading to expending much more on thetreatment. In this study we tend to evaluate the common complaints about the disease and find out about the most engaged sites through reviewing our laparoscopic findings. Our descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted prospectively. The study group were selected among the patients of Najmieh Hospital from March, 1996 to March, 2006. Those patients with the chief complaints about chronic pelvic pains, dysparonia, dysmenorrheal and infertility, as diagnosed by a surgeon, underwent the laparoscopy surgery. Then, a pathologist confirmed the diagnoses through biopsy. Those patients with only clinical diagnosis or without any pathology results recorded were excluded from the study. For each one of the subjects, data on surgical and demographical findings were collected using a questionnaire that contained questions about demographical background, the chief complaints, the engaged site and the surgeon’s findings. The average age of the participating patients was 28.7±6.2 with a minimum of 17 and a maximum of 49 years old. The chief complaints were recorded about: 43% primary infertility, 24% chronic pelvic pains, 14% having a cyst resistant to the treatment, 8% secondary infertility, 7% dysmenorrheal, 4% recurrent abortion and vaginal hemorrhage. The incidence of endometriosis was found to be 28% in this study. The most affected sites by endometriosis were anterior and posterior choledosac in 12 and 16 cases, respectively; the right ovary and the left one in 7 and 11 cases, respectively; and the left and right tubes were respectively affected in 10 and 6 cases. According to the findings of this study, pelvic pains are the most prevalent incident of the clinical complications related to endometriosis. So, it is recommended here that those women complaining about pelvic pains undertake laparoscopic surgery to avoid the negative consequences on their married life as well as on the quality of their social life. Also, further studies are needed to confirm the unlikelihood of the effect of endometriosis on infertility.