title: Laparoscopic CO2 laser vaporization of endometriosis compared with traditional treatments.
abstract: This study reports on 108 infertile patients with endometriosis diagnosed at laparoscopy. Sixty-four patients had endometriosis and adhesions vaporized with a CO2 laser (LAS) and were prospectively compared with a control group (CON) of 44 patients who had laparoscopy. The 6- and 12-month estimated cumulative pregnancy rates for LAS were 0.32 +/- 0.07 and 0.55 +/- 0.09 respectively, and for CON 0.17 +/- 0.06 and 0.43 +/- 0.09 (Breslow P = 0.10). Monthly fecundity rates were 6.7% in LAS and 4.5% in CON. Survival analysis with fixed covariates showed that pregnancy rates were increased in patients with adhesions (P = 0.002) and other pelvic disease (P = 0.0001). Pregnancy rates were reduced by age (P = 0.02), previous adhesiolysis (P = 0.0000) and post-laparoscopy medical treatment (P = 0.0002). Our findings indicate that CO2 laser laparoscopy vaporization of endometriosis can be a safe, effective, and possibly improved modality for treating endometriosis.
authors.affiliation: Stanford University School of Medicine, California.
authors.forename: G D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Adamson
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: L L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Subak
mesh_terms: D000206:Actuarial Analysis; D004715:Endometriosis / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D053685:Laser Therapy; D011247:Pregnancy; D014835:Volatilization