Endometriosis Surgery Reduces Pain and Improves Quality of Life

The finding is based on the analysis of visual analog scale and quality of life questionnaire scores.

Key Points

Highlights:

• Endometriosis surgery reduces pelvic and sexual pain and improves patients’ quality of life.

Importance:

• This study supports the importance and advantages of surgical treatment of endometriosis.

What's done here:

• Researchers assessed the amount of pain experienced by women with endometriosis before and after laparoscopic surgery.
• They also analyzed the answers women gave in a questionnaire assessing the quality of life.

Key results:

• The average visual analog scale (VAS) score for period pain fell from 5.3 before surgery to 2.6 six months after surgery and to 2.3 three years after surgery. 
• The VAS score for chronic pelvic pain fell from 2.6 before surgery to 1.4 six months after surgery and to 1.3 three years after surgery. 
• The VAS score for pain during sexual intercourse fell from 2.7 before surgery to 1.1 six months after surgery and stayed almost the same three years after surgery at 1.2.
• The women’s average quality-of-life-score linked to bodily pain increased from 54.6 before surgery to 74.4 six months after surgery.
• The score linked to role limitation due to physical problems increased from 63.3 before surgery to 81.9 six month after surgery.
• The quality-of-life-score linked to social functioning increased from 66 before surgery to 75.6 six months after surgery
• The score linked to role limitation due to emotional problems increase from 65.7 before surgery to 77.4 after surgery. 
• All quality-of-life-scores remained stable over time.  

Lay Summary

Endometriosis surgery improves pelvic and sexual pain according to a study published in the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology. This improvement stays stable over time meaning that the benefits of surgery last for years.

In order to assess the effect of endometriosis surgery on patients’ quality of life, a team of researchers led by Dr. Nicolas Bourdel at Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Clermont Ferrand in France analyzed 981 patients, ages 15 to 50 who underwent laparoscopic surgery for the treatment of endometriosis between January 2004 and December 2012. The researchers used the visual analog scale to assess the pain experienced by the women before laparoscopic surgery and then again at six months and three years after surgery.

The visual analog scale or VAS is a straight line representing “no pain” on one end and the “worse imaginable pain” on the other. A person marks a point on the line to express the amount of pain they are experiencing. It is a useful tool to help clinicians assess the intensity of pain that a patient experiences. 

The researchers found that the average VAS score for period pain fell from 5.3 before surgery to 2.6 six months after surgery and to 2.3 three years after surgery. They also found that the VAS score for chronic pelvic pain fell from 2.6 before surgery to 1.4 six months after surgery and to 1.3 three years after surgery. Similarly, the VAS score for pain during sexual intercourse fell from 2.7 before surgery to 1.1 six months after surgery and stayed almost the same three years after surgery at 1.2. 

The researchers also analyzed the answers that the patients gave in the six-item short form (SF-36) survey, a patient-reported measure of the quality of life. They found that patients quality of life improved in terms of pain and role limitations due to physical problems as well as in terms of social functioning and role limitations due to emotional problems. All scores increased at six months following surgery and stayed stable thereafter. 

The authors concluded that endometriosis surgery improves pelvic and sexual pain, remaining stable over the years.

Research Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30138741