UPDATE An update on pelvic inflammatory disease

A review of the publications on pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) over the past 18 months reveals a number of common themes. This brief article highlights some relevant papers which may be of interest and summarises their main messages. For many doctors, even those with many yearsof clinical experience, the diagnosis of pelvicinflammatory disease (PID) remains prob-lematical. The sensitivity and specificity of a clini-cal diagnosis hovers around 50%1–4 and the “gold standard ” of laparoscopy is expensive, impractical in an outpatient setting, not 100 % sensitive,5 and probably subject to interoperator and intraopera-tor variability. Transvaginal ultrasound is useful in detecting fluid collections within the pelvis, such as a tubo-ovarian abscess or pyosalpinx, but cannot visualise the fallopian tube wall whic