Chronic pelvic pain in adolescent women. Diagnostic laparoscopy and ultrasonography.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the correlation of preoperative pelvic examination and ultrasonography with the laparoscopic findings in 45 adolescent women with chronic pelvic pain.


METHODS
Between January 1, 1989, and December 31, 1992, 45 adolescent women underwent diagnostic laparoscopy following a detailed clinical workup for evaluation of chronic pelvic pain.


RESULTS
Thirty-five of 45 pelvic examination findings correlated with the laparoscopic findings. The predictive values of normal and abnormal findings at pelvic examination were 42.8% and 93.5%, respectively. Ultrasonography (US) correlated with laparoscopy in 39 of 45 cases. The predictive value of normal findings at US was 60%, and that of abnormal findings was 94.2%. When both pelvic examination and US were normal, 50% of cases were abnormal at laparoscopy. However, laparoscopy revealed abnormality in 100% of patients with abnormal pelvic examinations and abnormal US findings.


CONCLUSIONS
Clinical evaluation of chronic pelvic pain, when combined with US, is highly predictive but needs confirmation, best provided by laparoscopy.
D000293:Adolescent; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D005831:Genital Diseases, Female / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy; D017699:Pelvic Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000209:etiology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014463:Ultrasonography