Hysterectomy for treatment of pain associated with endometriosis

The literature was searched for endometriosis and hysterectomy on PubMed and the individual search engines of the Journal of Minimally Invasive Surgery, Fertility and Sterility, BJOG, Obstetrics and Gynecology, the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Human Reproduction. Eighty references of interest were identified and included in this review. Analysis of hysterectomy for pain associated with endometriosis is difficult for many reasons. These include a lack of differentiation of various forms of cyclic pain from other forms of non-cyclic pain, the retrospective nature of much of the literature, and a low specificity for identifying pain. Hysterectomy for chronic non-specified pelvic pain associated with endometriosis is a successful approach in many women. It can not be determined whether this is due to intermingling of patients with and without cyclic pain or if both of these respond equally well. Focused prospective research is needed to determine whether symptoms, signs, or laboratory findings might be useful in determining more specific response patterns.