Conscious pain mapping by laparoscopy in women with chronic pelvic pain

To evaluate the findings and outcomes of laparoscopic conscious pain mapping in women with unsuccessfully treated chronic pelvic pain.

Fifty consecutive women with at least one prior procedure for chronic pelvic pain had conscious pain mapping. Operative findings and clinical outcomes were documented. Preoperative and postoperative pain levels were evaluated using visual analog scales.

Conscious pain mapping was successful in 35 cases (70%). Twenty-nine patients had 42 specific positive sites, and six patients had diffuse visceroperitoneal pelvic tenderness. Adhesions and endometriosis accounted for 45% of positive lesions or sites. About half of women with endometriosis or adhesions mapped pain specifically to those lesions. For endometriosis, histologic but not visual diagnosis predicted positive mapping. Specific viscera accounted for 36% of positively mapped sites. Diagnoses of chronic visceral pain syndrome were suggested by the findings in 16 (46%) patients whose mapping was successful. Mean +/- standard deviation visual analog scale pain levels were 8.7 +/- 1.2 preoperatively and 5.5 +/- 3.7 postoperatively. Twenty-two women (44%) had decreased pain postoperatively and eight (16%) were pain-free.

Conscious pain mapping can be done with reasonable success in women with prior surgical evaluations and treatments for chronic pelvic pain. Chronic visceral pain syndrome, adhesions, and endometriosis were the most common diagnoses.