Gyno Groupie

 

Hi all, I wanted to discuss something that plagues a lot of women with pelvic pain, and that is endometriosis.  Many of you know what that is. For those of you that are not familiar with it, please referred to previous post on this blog.

 

Traditionally, endometriosis is diagnosed via laparoscopic surgery.  We can see the active lesions and cauterize them. Once the lesions are cauterized the pain will improve. It is well known that these lesions typically have a dark brown or "chocolate" color appearance.  However, it is now agreed that these lesions have a wide range of colors depending how active they are. Some of these are clear which is difficult to see with traditional laparoscopy.

More recently, with the advent of robotic surgery, the optics on the camera is much improved. I use a simple example of watching an old analog TV versus the newer HDTV.  There's is a notable difference in the clarity of the picture.

 

This is also true with the robotic camera.  It allows the surgeon to see those lesions that could be potentially missed with traditional laparoscopic camera.  So in the end, the more the surgeon can see and cauterize, the higher chances that the pain will improve.

 

Hope that helps!

 

Benjamin Chen, M.D.

Eastside Gynecology Obstetrics, PC