Single vs. Multiple Laparoscopies: Pain Status One Year Post-Hysterectomy for Chronic Pelvic Pain

Despite the prevalence of chronic pelvic pain (CPP)— affecting one in seven women in the U.S.— its cause is often unknown. As such, an evaluation of our current approaches to the work-up of CPP is warranted. Laparoscopy is considered a gold standard tool in the evaluation of CPP with 40% of all laparoscopies in the U.S. performed for this condition [1]. However, limited data exists portraying the clinical importance and outcomes for repeat diagnostic laparoscopies. This is a retrospective case-control study to determine the incidence of multiple laparoscopies for CPP over the past 10 years, and to compare outcomes between patients who underwent single (SL) vs multiple (ML) laparoscopies. We propose that patients who undergo multiple laparoscopies warrant discussion of hysterectomy as our results indicate that resolution of pain in patients who undergo multiple laparoscopies for the indication of CPP is similar to patients undergoing hysterectomy after single laparoscopy