Pathophysiology and Clinical Implications of Ovarian Endometriomas.

Ovarian endometriomas affect many patients with endometriosis and have significant effects on quality of life, fertility, and risk of malignancy. Endometriomas range from small (1-3 cm), densely fibrotic cysts to large (20 cm or greater) cysts with varying degrees of fibrosis. Endometriomas are hypothesized to form from endometriotic invasion or metaplasia of functional cysts or alternatively from ovarian surface endometriosis that bleeds into the ovarian cortex. Different mechanisms of endometrioma formation may help explain the phenotypic variability observed among endometriomas. Laparoscopic surgery is the preferred first-line modality of diagnosis and treatment of endometriomas. Ovarian cystectomy is preferred over cyst ablation or sclerotherapy for enabling pathologic diagnosis, improving symptoms, preventing recurrence, and optimizing fertility outcomes. Cystectomy for small, densely adherent endometriomas is made challenging by dense fibrosis of the cyst capsule obliterating the plane with normal ovarian cortex, whereas cystectomy for large endometriomas can carry unique challenges as a result of adhesions between the cyst and pelvic structures. Preoperative and postoperative hormonal suppression can improve operative outcomes and decrease the risk of endometrioma recurrence. Whether the optimal management, fertility consequences, and malignant potential of endometriomas vary on the basis of size and phenotype remains to be fully explored.

Multidisciplinary Management of Cutaneous Gluteus Vaginal Fistula After Sacrospinous Ligament Fixation.

Introduction: Cutaneous gluteal vaginal fistula is a rare but significant postoperative complication which may present years after sacrospinous ligament fixation (SSLF) surgery There is limited data on the management of cutaneous vaginal fistula following SSLF. Case description: This case report describes a 77-year-old who presents twenty years after SSLF with cutaneous gluteal vaginal abscess and fistula. She underwent successful management with CT-guided percutaneous drainage of gluteal abscess and placement of guiding cutaneous vaginal catheter, laparoscopic pelvic wall dissection and evaluation, and transvaginal localization and removal of the infected permanent suture. Discussion: Multi-disciplinary approach should be considered in the treatment of chronic fistula status post SSLF, including interventional radiology, urogynecology, and minimally invasive gynecologic surgery.

Adnexal masses during pregnancy: diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis.

Adnexal masses are identified in pregnant patients at a rate of 2 to 20 in 1000, approximately 2 to 20 times more frequently than in the age-matched general population. The most common types of adnexal masses in pregnancy requiring surgical management are dermoid cysts (32%), endometriomas (15%), functional cysts (12%), serous cystadenomas (11%), and mucinous cystadenomas (8%). Approximately 2% of adnexal masses in pregnancy are malignant. Although most adnexal masses in pregnancy can be safely observed and approximately 70% spontaneously resolve, a minority of cases warrant surgical intervention because of symptoms, risk of torsion, or suspicion of malignancy. Ultrasound is the mainstay of evaluation of adnexal masses in pregnancy because of accuracy, safety, and availability. Several ultrasound mass scoring systems, including the Sassone, Lerner, International Ovarian Tumor Analysis Simple Rules, and International Ovarian Tumor Analysis Assessment of Different NEoplasias in the adneXa scoring systems have been validated specifically in pregnant populations. Decisions regarding expectant vs surgical management of adnexal masses in pregnancy must balance the risks of torsion or malignancy with the likelihood of spontaneous resolution and the risks of surgery. Laparoscopic surgery is preferred over open surgery when possible because of consistently demonstrated shorter hospital length of stay and less postoperative pain and some data demonstrating shorter operative time, lower blood loss, and lower risks of fetal loss, preterm birth, and low birthweight. The best practices for laparoscopic surgery during pregnancy include left lateral decubitus positioning after the first trimester of pregnancy, port placement with respect to uterine size and pathology location, insufflation pressure of less than 12 to 15 mm Hg, intraoperative maternal capnography, pre- and postoperative fetal heart rate and contraction monitoring, and appropriate mechanical and chemical thromboprophylaxes. Although planning surgery for the second trimester of pregnancy generally affords time for mass resolution while optimizing visualization with regards to uterine size and pathology location, necessary surgery should not be delayed because of gestational age. When performed at a facility with appropriate obstetrical, anesthetic, and neonatal support, adnexal surgery in pregnancy generally results in excellent outcomes for pregnant patients and fetuses.

Combined Medical and Minimally Invasive Robotic Surgical Approach to the Treatment and Repair of Cesarean Scar Pregnancies.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The rise in cesarean deliveries, has led to increase in maternal complications in subsequent pregnancies such as abnormal placental implantation, uterine rupture, hemorrhage and, less commonly, cesarean scar pregnancies (CSP). Our objective was to describe patient characteristics following a combined medical and surgical treatment approach to first trimester cesarean scar pregnancies. METHODS: This was a case series approved by the Institutional Review Board of cesarean scar pregnancies over a two-year period at a single academic institution. The study included five patients with diagnosed cesarean scar pregnancies opting for pregnancy termination with the desire for fertility preservation. Medical treatment involved intra-gestational sac injection of lidocaine followed by systemic injection of methotrexate. At a minimum of two months later, surgical resection of cesarean scar pregnancy and repair of the uterus was performed. RESULTS: Median patient age was 36 (range 34 - 42) years, with 4 (3 - 10) prior pregnancies and 2 (1 - 3) prior cesarean deliveries. 40% (2/5) were Hispanic, 20% (1/5) Caucasian, 20% (1/5) African-American, and 20% (1/5) South Asian. After medical intervention, patients waited on average 4.6 ± 2.3 months before surgery. No post-intervention complications or recurrences occurred. Two patients had a subsequent pregnancy. CONCLUSION: This case series demonstrates an ideal management of cesarean scar pregnancy using combined medical and surgical approach in treating current ectopic pregnancy and repairing the uterine defect successfully without recurrence.

Conservative management of stage IIB ovarian carcinoma with favorable oncology and fertility outcomes.

•Fertility treatment prior to definitive cancer therapy in stage IIB EOC.•Both fertility and oncologic outcomes were successful.•The role of Multidisciplinary team is critical.

Robotic Repair of Complicated Vesico-[utero]/Cervicovaginal Fistula after Cesarean Section.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate intra- and postoperative steps in a successful management of a complicated vesico-[utero]/cervicovaginal fistula. DESIGN: Stepwise demonstration of the technique with narrated video footage. SETTING: A urogenital fistula in developed countries mostly occurs after gynecologic surgeries but rarely from obstetric complications. The main treatment of a urogenital fistula is either transvaginal or transabdominal surgical repair. We present a case of a 36-year-old woman, gravida 3 para 3-0-0-3, who developed a complicated large vesico-[utero]/cervicovaginal fistula after an emergent repeat cesarean section. Robotic repair was performed 2 months after the injury using the modified O'Connor method. Blood loss was minimal, and the patient was discharged from the hospital 1 day postoperatively. Follow-up showed complete healing of the fistula with no urine leakage, frequency of urination, or dyspareunia. The patient resumed normal bladder function and menstrual period up to 4 months after the repair procedure. INTERVENTIONS: The basic surgical principle of urogenital fistula repair is demonstrated: (1) development of vesicovaginal spaces by dissection of the bladder from the uterus and the vagina, (2) meticulous hemostasis, (3) adequate freshened of the fistula edges, (4) tension-free and watertight closure of the bladder. We also demonstrate some other techniques that have developed though our own practice: (1) facilitating bladder distention by temporarily blocking the fistula, (2) placement of a ureteral catheter to protect the ureters, (3) interposition with omental flap, (4) single layer through and through closure of a cystotomy with 2-0 V-Loc suture (Covidien, Irvington, NJ). CONCLUSION: Complicated urogenital fistulas may be repaired successfully using minimally invasive surgery using robotic assistance, enabling less blood loss, faster recovery, shorter hospital stay, and fewer complications, etc.

Broad ligament Extraintestinal Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (EGIST): Case report and brief overview of EGIST.

•Highly suspicious pelvic mass may require preoperative biopsy for diagnosis.•Neoadjuvant imatinib lowers EGIST tumor burden in extensive disease preoperatively.•EGIST resection aims at complete surgical resection and negative margins.•This case was managed with complete surgical resection and adjuvant imatinib.•Prognostic factors in EGIST are size, mitosis, location and genetic mutations.

Endometriosis and Endometriosis-Associated Ovarian Cancer (EAOC).

Endometriosis is a gynecologic disease that affects over 10% of women of reproductive age causing pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea, and infertility, resulting in significant disability and reduced quality of life. Very recent genetic studies have suggested that endometriosis is a clonal disease in the epithelium and its development is independent of stroma, providing new insight into the genesis of endometriosis. The endometrioid tissue lining may also react by epithelial atypical hyperplasia and even neoplasia, in a manner somehow similar to that in the uterine cavity and under the same hormonal influences.

The two Achilles heels of surgical randomized controlled trials: differences in surgical skills and reporting of average performance.

Randomized controlled trials of surgery are fundamentally different from randomized controlled trials of medications because it is difficult to blind or mask a surgical procedure or perform "sham" operations. An additional challenge is the variation in skills and surgical proficiency of participating centers and surgeons. Addressing heterogeneity in surgical proficiency remains of paramount importance, especially when randomized controlled trials involve a new or complex procedure such as minimally invasive radical surgery. In the presence of such heterogeneity, it is very cumbersome to evaluate objectively and monitor surgical skills so that most trials simply report associations that are averaged across surgeons and hospitals/centers. Such reporting is not transparent because the rates of complications and adverse outcomes are reported only as averages, and these averages may not apply to the individual participating surgeons or centers. These factors, coupled with the inherent nongeneralizability of findings from such randomized controlled trials, because of the strict inclusion and exclusion criteria for enrollment, may lead to conclusions that no longer apply to real life for individual surgeons or centers. Case in point is a recently published noninferiority randomized controlled trial that reported that minimally invasive radical hysterectomy was associated with lower rates of disease-free survival (86% vs 96.5% at 4.5 years) and overall survival (93.8% vs 99% at 3 years) than open abdominal radical hysterectomy in patients with cervical cancer. However, randomized controlled trials that involve 2 competing complex or new procedures may be affected by tremendous confounding because of variations in surgical proficiency and also nonstandardization for other confounding factors such as patient selection categories (ie, stage of cancer) and adjuvant postoperative therapies that may affect long-term survival. The purpose of this Viewpoint is not to provide an exhaustive review of the trial's shortcomings but to use it as an illustration to focus on 2 challenging areas that most randomized controlled trials of a new complex surgical procedure suffer from: (1) unadjusting or not correcting for surgical skill variability and (2) nontransparent reporting of averaged results. We provide suggestions to overcome these deficiencies through robust methods and statistical approaches.

Serendipity and strategy in rapid innovation.

Innovation is to organizations what evolution is to organisms: it is how organizations adapt to environmental change and improve. Yet despite advances in our understanding of evolution, what drives innovation remains elusive. On the one hand, organizations invest heavily in systematic strategies to accelerate innovation. On the other, historical analysis and individual experience suggest that serendipity plays a significant role. To unify these perspectives, we analysed the mathematics of innovation as a search for designs across a universe of component building blocks. We tested our insights using data from language, gastronomy and technology. By measuring the number of makeable designs as we acquire components, we observed that the relative usefulness of different components can cross over time. When these crossovers are unanticipated, they appear to be the result of serendipity. But when we can predict crossovers in advance, they offer opportunities to strategically increase the growth of the product space.

Ovarian cancer laparoscopic hysterectomy and staging in a patient with history of intraperitoneal renal transplant.

OBJECTIVE: Ovarian cancer laparoscopic staging of patient with intraperitoneal renal transplant. METHODS: 43-year-old female with intra-peritoneal renal transplant was referred status post laparoscopic bilateral ovarian cystectomies. The pathology report revealed serous adenocarcinoma with clear cell and papillary features of ovaries and endometrium. She was asymptomatic with benign examination. PET/CT of chest/abdomen/pelvis showed area of metabolic activity in left ovary and right common iliac pelvic lymph nodes. RESULTS: During laparoscopic staging [1], the intraperitoneal kidney transplant was firmly adhered to the uterus, right pelvic sidewall and adnexa. Right pelvic lymph node debulking was performed but not paraaortic lymph node dissection because of increased morbidity of this case. The final pathology showed ovarian serous adenocarcinoma with clear cell features, without involvement of endometrium, negative lymph nodes and peritoneal washings. We believe that the intrauterine pathological finding during the first surgery was "drop lesion" from the ovary to the uterine cavity. Thus, the final stage assigned was IC1, secondary to ovarian cyst rupture at the initial surgery. She received six cycles of intravenous Carboplatin and Taxol. There is no evidence of recurrence in nine-month follow up. CONCLUSION: The incidence of malignancies is increasing in cases of renal transplant secondary to the age of patients and the immunosuppressive therapy [2,3]. Laparoscopic surgical treatment for gynecologic malignancies can be challenging due to location of transplanted kidney in the pelvis [4]. We present a rare case of laparoscopic ovarian cancer staging with intraperitoneal renal transplant, which can be safely performed in hands of a skilled laparoscopic surgeon.

Robotic-assisted Laparoscopic Repair of a Cesarean Section Scar Defect.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To describe our technique for the repair of a cesarean section uterine scar defect after removal of an ectopic pregnancy from the scar in a patient desiring future pregnancies. DESIGN: Step-by-step explanation of the procedure using video (Canadian Task Force classification III). SETTING: Uterine scar dehiscence/defect is a known complications of multiple cesarean deliveries that can result in abnormal bleeding, infertility, and cesarean scar ectopic pregnancy. With the increasing number of cesarean sections performed in the United States, the prevalence of this complication is rising. Nonetheless, there currently are no standardized surgical treatment guidelines available to manage this pathology through a minimally invasive approach. INTERVENTIONS: In this video, we describe our technique for the surgical management of a symptomatic cesarean section scar defect. We performed a robotic-assisted laparoscopic repair of this defect in a 40-year-old G4P3013 with a recent cesarean section scar ectopic pregnancy managed by endometrial curettage, with subsequent persistent abnormal vaginal bleeding. A repeat ultrasound revealed a low uterine segment defect consistent with dehiscence. She was referred to us because she desired a conservative treatment given her desire for future pregnancies. The defect was localized by hysteroscopy and laparoscopy after developing the bladder flap. The scar tissue around the defect was resected, and the freshened edges of the defect were closed using delayed absorbable suture. Chromopertubation confirmed the watertightness of the repair. Postoperatively, the patient had regular normal periods, and her hysterosalpingogram didn't show any uterine defect. CONCLUSION: Robotic-assisted laparoscopic repair of cesarean section scar defect is a feasible and safe procedure when done with respect to anatomy and following sound surgical technique. With the increasing number of cesarean sections, gynecologists will be dealing with this pathology more frequently, and need to become more familiar with different techniques that can be helpful in performing such a repair.

New insights in the pathophysiology of ovarian cancer and implications for screening and prevention.

Despite advances in medicine, ovarian cancer remains the deadliest of the gynecological malignancies. Herein we present the latest information on the pathophysiology of ovarian cancer and its significance for ovarian cancer screening and prevention. A new paradigm for ovarian cancer pathogenesis presupposes 2 distinct types of ovarian epithelial carcinoma with distinct molecular profiles: type I and type II carcinomas. Type I tumors include endometrioid, clear-cell carcinoma, and low-grade serous carcinoma and mostly arise via defined sequence either from endometriosis or from borderline serous tumors, mostly presenting in an early stage. More frequent type II carcinomas are usually high-grade serous tumors, and recent evidence suggests that the majority arise from the fimbriated end of the fallopian tube. Subsequently, high-grade serous carcinomas usually present at advanced stages, likely as a consequence of the rapid peritoneal seeding from the open ends of the fallopian tubes. On the other hand, careful clinical evaluation should be performed along with risk stratification and targeted treatment of women with premalignant conditions leading to type I cancers, most notably endometriosis and endometriomas. Although the chance of malignant transformation is low, an understanding of this link offers a possibility of prevention and early intervention. This new evidence explains difficulties in ovarian cancer screening and helps in forming new recommendations for ovarian cancer risk evaluation and prophylactic treatments.