A scoping review proposal for the diagnostic and treatment delay of endometriosis

An effective and comprehensive review will shorten the diagnostic process and clarify the appropriate diagnostic pathways.

Key Points

Highlights:

• Several financial, emotional, and physical burdens will be resolved in women with endometriosis if the delays in the diagnosis could be overcome.

Importance:

What’s done here?

• This review describes a protocol for systematic and comprehensive literature search for evaluating pathways, timing, and diagnostic delay of endometriosis.
• The primary purpose of the review protocol [context/concept/population] should be: “What research has been performed internationally concerning the pathways, timing, and delays in diagnosis of endometriosis for people across all age groups?” based on the Joanna Briggs Institute Methodology.
• The initial screening should be performed by two independent researchers, by reviewing the titles and abstracts for inclusion.
• A third researcher should review the final scan and help to prevent any conflicts.
• The literature review should include keywords: “diagnosis, delayed diagnosis, late diagnosis, time, delay, endometriosis”.
• All studies with participants of any age, race/ethnicity, nationality, or socioeconomic status; including participants with a confirmed diagnosis of endometriosis; studies with the purpose of pathways, timing and/or delay in diagnosis; primary research/empirical studies or case studies published in peer-reviewed journals should be included.

Key results:

• Screening of literature as defined above will identify gaps in the research and overcome problems in the diagnostic process.
• The scoping review of delay, timing, and pathways to diagnosis will also provide uniformity of terms and prevent duplication of efforts.

Limitations

• The limitation of this review is the language restriction as the scientific benefit would be provided from a scoping review inclusive of other languages.

Lay Summary

Women with endometriosis suffer from pain for a prolonged time due to diagnostic and treatment delay which is the most challenging aspect of endometriosis.

Cromeens et al, from the USA, published a review entitled “Timing, delays, and pathways to the diagnosis of endometriosis: a scoping review protocol” in the journal named BMJ Open.

The authors sought to develop a review protocol that will be a source for researchers who want to work on the diagnosis process of endometriosis. Methodologically, they wanted to follow Johanna Briggs Institute guidelines, hence they developed a scoping protocol prior to execution; and proposed the current protocol for a systematic and comprehensive review of the literature evaluating pathways, timing, and delay of diagnosis of endometriosis.

Screening of literature as defined above will identify gaps in the research and overcome problems in the diagnostic process. Literature should be reviewed with the keywords of “diagnosis, delayed diagnosis, late diagnosis, time, delay, endometriosis” by three independent reviewers.

The scoping review of delay, timing, and pathways to diagnosis will also provide uniformity of terms and prevent duplication of efforts. Thus, this review protocol will be beneficial for both clinicians and patients due to no delay in diagnosis. Based on this protocol, early diagnosis and treatment of endometriosis will relieve the patient's pain and improve their quality of life.

“The scoping review protocol will survey the current scientific literature to identify gaps in the research across methods to encourage uniformity of terms and prevent duplication of efforts,” they added.

Research Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34168034/