Novel Technology to Capture Objective Data from Patients' Recovery from Laparoscopic Endometriosis Surgery.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To assess the feasibility of a noncontact radio sensor as an objective measurement tool to study postoperative recovery from endometriosis surgery. DESIGN: Prospective cohort pilot study. SETTING: Center for minimally invasive gynecologic surgery at an academically affiliated community hospital in conjunction with in-home monitoring. PATIENTS: Patients aged above 18 years who sleep independently and were scheduled to have laparoscopy for the diagnosis and treatment of suspected endometriosis. INTERVENTIONS: A wireless, noncontact sensor, Emerald, was installed in the subjects' home and used to capture physiologic signals without body contact. The device captured objective data about the patients' movement and sleep in their home for 5 weeks before surgery and approximately 5 weeks postoperatively. The subjects were concurrently asked to complete a daily pain assessment using a numeric rating scale and a free text survey about their daily symptoms. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Three women aged 23 years to 39 years and with mild to moderate endometriosis participated in the study. Emerald-derived sleep and wake times were contextualized and corroborated by select participant comments from retrospective surveys. In addition, self-reported pain levels and 1 sleep variable, sleep onset to deep sleep time, showed a significant (p <.01), positive correlation with next-day-pain scores in all 3 subjects: r = 0.45, 0.50, and 0.55. In other words, the longer it took the subject to go from sleep onset to deep sleep, the higher their pain score the following day. CONCLUSION: A patient's experience with pain is challenging to meaningfully quantify. This study highlights Emerald's unique ability to capture objective data in both preoperative functioning and postoperative recovery in an endometriosis population. The utility of this uniquely objective data for the clinician-patient relationship is just beginning to be explored.

Five-Year Follow-Up After Laparoscopic Large Nerve Resection for Deep Infiltrating Sciatic Nerve Endometriosis.

OBJECTIVE: To report neurologic follow-up of patients after laparoscopic large resection of deep infiltrating endometriosis of the sciatic nerve. DESIGN: Prospective clinical case series. SETTING: Tertiary referral unit specializing in advanced gynecologic surgery and neuropelveology. PATIENTS: All data for patients who underwent laparoscopic surgery for endometriosis of the sciatic nerve between 2004 and 2016 (n = 259) were documented prospectively. In this study, patients who underwent a large resection of the sciatic nerve (>30% of the nerve) and were followed for at least 5 years were evaluated (n = 46). All patients presented preoperatively with incapacity for normal gait and foot drop. All were suffering from intractable and constant neuropathic sciatic pain (visual analog scale [VAS] score of 9 to 10 despite strong pain medicine), with sensorimotor disorders of the affected leg. INTERVENTIONS: Laparoscopic large resection of endometriosis of the sciatic nerve. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: All procedures were performed by laparoscopy. Postoperative management included medical treatment with neuroleptic agents and intensive physiotherapy. At the 5-year follow-up, all patients reported significant pain reduction, with a median VAS score of 2.1 (range, 0 to 3) and recovery of normal gait, including the ability to climb stairs. CONCLUSION: In deep infiltrating intraneural endometriosis of the sciatic nerve, patients present with motor disorders before and after surgical resection. The average VAS score was reduced from 9.33 preoperatively to 1.25 at a 3-year follow-up. When full resection of endometriosis including nerve resection is completed, sciatic nerve function recover, but recovery of a normal gait may take at least 3 years and intensive physiotherapy.

Quality of life in endometriosis: evaluation of the Dutch-version Endometriosis Health Profile-30 (EHP-30).

The Dutch version of the Endometriosis Health Profile-30 (EHP-30) showed a high return rate and data completeness, low floor and ceiling effects, as well as good internal consistency, test-retest reliability and construct validity. The questionnaire is a reliable and valid instrument for the measurement of health-related quality of life in women with endometriosis.