Mauricio Simoes Abrao

To evaluate serum concentrations of CA-125 and soluble CD-23 and to correlate them with clinical symptoms, localization and stage of pelvic endometriosis and histological classification of the disease. Blood samples were collected from 44 women with endometriosis and 58 without endometriosis, during the first three days (1st sample) and during the 7th, 8th and 9th day (2nd sample) of the menstrual cycle. Measurements of CA-125 and soluble CD-23 were performed by ELISA. Mann-Whitney U test was used for age, pain evaluations (visual analog scale) and biomarkers concentrations. Serum levels of CA125 were higher in endometriosis patients when compared to the control group during both periods of the menstrual cycle evaluated in the study. This marker was also elevated in women with chronic pelvic pain, deep dyspareunia (2nd sample), dysmenorrhea (both samples) and painful defecation during the menstrual flow (2nd sample). CA-125 concentration was higher in advanced stages of the disease in both samples and also in women with ovarian endometrioma. Concerning CD-23, no statistically significant differences were observed between groups. The concentrations of CA-125 were higher in patients with endometriosis than in patients without the disease. No significantly differences were observed for soluble CD-23 levels between groups.

The present study examined the relationship between some clinical variables and quality of life in a group of patients with endometriosis. A total of 130 women seen at a multidisciplinary center specializing in gynecology endometriosis in 2008 participated in the study. This was a cross-sectional study conducted with a convenience sample. The diagnosis of endometriosis was performed by biopsy according to the criteria of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. The clinical and demographic data were collected from the patients' records. Pain intensity was assessed by a visual numerical scale (0-10), and data on the quality of life were collected using the SF-36. Data analysis consisted of descriptive and inferential statistical tests, Spearman correlation coefficient and Kruskal-Wallis test to compare scores between groups. Nonparametric tests were used for analysis because data were not normally distributed. The patients were 21 to 54 years of age or 34, standard diversion (SD)=6.56], 87% had a university degree, and 75% were married. Seventeen percent reported cases of endometriosis in the family. The average time of onset of symptoms was 4.5 years (SD=6.6), 63% of patients were in stage 3 or 4 of endometriosis 36% of patients had severe or disabling dysmenorrhea and the average intensity of pain according to a visual numerical scale was of 5.6 (SD=3.5). Results suggest that the staging of the disease did not determine the intensity of pain. The time of onset of symptoms also showed no relationship to pain intensity and SF-36 scores. On the other hand, the intensity of pain was associated with lower scores on some scales of the SF-36. Patients with endometriosis had lower scores of quality of life than the general population and lower than those of some other diseases.

Endometriosis is a disease characterized by ectopic implantation of stroma and/or endometrial glands in extra-uterine location that affects 15% of women in reproductive age and may be expressed in peritoneum, ovary or as deeply infiltrating lesions. Symptoms could be pelvic pain, which includes deep dyspareunia, dysmenorrhea and aciclic pain, infertility and intestinal and urinary cyclical changes. The diagnostic suspicion is made through suggestive clinical and image exams, but it depends on the confirmation by surgical procedures such as video-laparoscopy that allows viewing the pelvis and obtaining tissues samples for further histological analysis. Some researches had been done about the delay on diagnosis since the first symptoms and one of the major causes is the lack of knowledge of the patients and even the doctors about the disease, beyond the difficulty of access to laparoscopy procedures at the public health system. In order to find some relation between the sites of the disease and clinical data, many researches have been done and the most evident associations are: deep dyspareunia related to lesions in pouch of Douglas and severe dysmerorrhea related to the presence of pelvic pain in advanced stages of endometriosis. The present paper is a literature review to find some consistent relation between the characteristics of the disease and the symptoms, and to search for the bias of patient‘s selection or information, that undermined some of the researches. This is an attempt to allow the medical practice to make the diagnosis earlier. A endometriose é uma doença caracterizada pelo implante ectópico de estroma e/ou epitélio glandular endometrial em localização extra-uterina que acomete 15% das mulheres em idade reprodutiva, podendo se manifestar em focos superficiais peritoneais, no ovário ou na forma infiltrativa profunda. A paciente pode apresentar quadro clínico diverso com queixa de dispareunia de profundidade, dismenorréia, dor pélvica acíclica, infertilidade, alterações intestinais e urinárias cíclicas. A suspeita diagnóstica é feita através de quadro clínico sugestivo associado com exames de imagem, porém a confirmação depende de procedimento cirúrgico, como a vídeo-laparoscopia que permite visualização da pelve e obtenção de amostra tecidual para posterior análise histológica. Em algumas pesquisas acerca do atraso no diagnóstico da endometriose desde o aparecimento de sintomas, concluiu-se que uma das principais causas desse atraso é o pouco conhecimento relativo à doença entre pacientes e médicos, além da dificuldade de acesso à cirurgia laparoscópica em serviços públicos de saúde. Algumas pesquisas foram feitas para tentar relacionar os tipos de doença, sintomas e locais acometidos e acharam associações mais evidentes entre dispareunia de profundidade e doença em fundo de saco posterior, além de maior intensidade de dismenorréia e dor pélvica acíclica em estádios mais avançados da doença. Nosso estudo faz uma revisão da literatura no sentido de encontrar relações consistentes entre as características da doença e os sintomas, buscando vieses que prejudicaram outras pesquisas, como de seleção de pacientes e informação, e permitindo à prática clínica o diagnóstico mais precoce das pacientes.

Objective: To describe the use of mechanical anastomoses in cases of laparoscopically assisted vaginal rectosigmoidectomy for the treatment of rectosigmoid endometriosis. Methods: Pilot study evaluating eight patients with rectosigmoid endometriosis referred for surgical treatment. All patients were submitted to laparoscopically assisted vaginal segmental resection of the rectosigmoid with anastomoses performed using linear and circular staplers. Results: The average length of the surgical procedure was 177.5 min and average duration of hospitalization was 4.13 days. There were no intra‐operative complications and integrity of the anastomoses was confirmed in all patients. One patient reported partial improvement of symptoms and 7 patients presented complete clinical remission 12 months following surgery. Conclusion: Laparoscopically assisted vaginal segmental resection of the sigmoid infiltrated by endometriosis is a feasible surgical procedure. The technique combines transvaginal access with mechanical intestinal anastomoses performed using linear and circular staplers, and achieves good results with low morbidity.