RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The identification of presurgical clinical markers may be helpful to allow the staging of endometriosis severity. It has been suggested that pain characteristics orientate the gynecologist about the anatomical involvement of endometriosis. The study was performed to analyze the correlation between pain symptoms and the anatomical location of endometriosis. METHODS: One hundred fifty-five consecutive patients with a complete removal of deep infiltrating endometriosis (DIE) were included. Prior to surgery, data on patient and disease characteristics were obtained. The intensity of the pain symptoms was registered using a Visual Analogue Scale. The endometriotic lesions were categorized according to the Enzian morphological classification. Correlation and multivariate analysis were performed to assess the potential associations between pain characteristics (dysmenorrhea, pelvic pain, dyschezia, dyspareunia or dysuria) and the location of endometriosis or other disease-related characteristics (hematuria, rectal bleeding or adenomyosis). RESULTS: Pelvic pain was significantly associated with the presence of adenomyosis. Dyschezia was correlated with rectal bleeding and dysuria with the presence of hematuria. No relationship was found between other kinds of pain and the morphological location of endometriosis or other disease-related characteristics. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that pelvic pain is correlated with the presence of adenomyosis in women with DIE. Further studies are required.