Osman Develioglu

Evaluation of adhesion formation after laparoscopic treatment of polycystic ovarian disease.

The incidence and fertility effects of postoperative adhesion formation after laparoscopic ovarian electrocautery or laser photocoagulation of polycystic ovaries has not been adequately analyzed. Short-interval second-look laparoscopy appears to be a useful method for addressing this issue. Employing short-interval second-look laparoscopy 3 to 4 weeks after the initial laparoscopic intervention, we were able to demonstrate adhesions in 6 of 7 patients (85%) treated with ovarian electrocautery and 8 of 10 patients (80%) submitted to laser therapy. The adhesions were amenable to laparoscopic lysis in 12 of 14 patients (85%). The subsequent conception rates within 6 months of second-look laparoscopy that were 57% and 40% in the electrocautery and the Nd:YAG laser groups, respectively, may in part be attributed to the restoration of normal pelvic anatomy during this procedure.

Laparoscopic CO2 laser uterine nerve ablation for treatment of drug resistant primary dysmenorrhea

Twenty women with drug-resistant primary dysmenorrhea were subjected to laparoscopic CO2 laser uterine nerve ablation. Menstrual pain assessed by a linear analog pain score showed a reduction of 33%, decreasing from 7.5 +/- 0.5 preoperatively to 5.0 +/- 1.7 postoperatively. The procedure was free of major complications and should be considered as a second-line therapeutic option in women who have failed medical treatment using nonsteroidal antiinflammatory agents or OCs.

Serum and Peritoneal Fluid CA-125 Levels in Early Stage Endometriosis

Serum and peritoneal fluid (PF) CA-125 levels were assayed using the immunoradiometric assay in 17 women with minimal endometriosis and 21 control women at the time of laparoscopy. Serum levels of CA-125 were not significantly higher in women with minimal endometriosis. Minimal endometriosis was diagnosed with a 70.6% rate of sensitivity and a 71.4% rate of specificity with 16 U/ml as the upper limit of normal. PF CA-125 levels were significantly higher than serum levels but showed no significant difference between control and endometriosis patients.

Pelvic-Peritoneal Tuberculosis with Elevated Serum and Peritoneal Fluid Ca-125 Levels

We report 2 patients with pelvic-peritoneal tuberculosis and elevated serum and peritoneal fluid levels of Ca-125. The first was a young and infertile women who had cul-de-sac nodularity and dysmenorrhea. The other was postmenopausal and presented with weight loss and ascites. While a preoperative diagnosis of endometriosis was made in the former, intraperitoneal malignancy was considered in the latter. The diagnosis of pelvic-peritoneal tuberculosis was reached by laparoscopic-directed biopsy in both patients. Serum levels of Ca-125 returned to normal limits following antituberculous drug treatment.

Digoxin-Like Immunoreactive Substance and Preterm Labor

An endogenous digoxin-like substance (DLIS) that may be related to preterm labor has been studied. Using a commercially available radioimmunoassay kit. DLIS levels were determined in 110 women, of whom 33 were in preterm labor, 27 were in labor at term, 26 had normally ongoing pregnancies before term and were not in labor, and finally 24 were at term but not in labor. Mean DLIS levels of women in preterm labor was found to be significantly high (greater than 0.2 ng/ml, p less than 0.05). Whether this finding points to a causative role for DLIS in preterm labor remains to be further investigated.

Activated Protein C Levels in Patients with Gynecologic Tumors

Activated protein C (APC) levels were measured in the plasma of patients with benign and malignant gynecologic tumors preoperatively, and on postoperative days 1 and 7. Preoperative levels of APC were found to be significantly low in both groups of patients compared to a group of healthy subjects. On postoperative day 1, levels of APC decreased significantly in both groups of patients compared to preoperative levels. By the 7th postoperative day, levels of APC in patients with benign tumors had increased significantly compared to postoperative day 1; levels in patients with malignant tumors, however, remained low. Our findings imply that there is a substantive correlation between gynecologic tumors, gynecologic surgery and the coagulation inhibitor, APC, which, in turn, can presumably be used to identify gynecologic patients who are at high risk for venous thrombosis.

Risk factors for groin node metastasis in squamous carcinoma of the vulva: a multivariate analysis of 39 cases

This study includes 39 patients with squamous carcinoma of the vulva subjected to radical surgery. Stage, tumor description, cell type, lesion localization, lesion size, depth of invasion, grade, lymphovascular space invasion, number of mitoses, degree of stromal inflammatory reaction, and tumors in surgical margins were analyzed for groin metastasis. Of the factors analyzed, stage (P = 0.018), grade (P = 0.007) and depth of invasion (P = 0.001) were found to be the most important predictors of node metastasis. While a combination of factors permitted to define a low-risk group with 0% node metastasis, it seems hard to identify preoperatively those patients with no risk of nodal metastasis.

Evaluation of the Functional Status of the Fallopian Tubes in Unexplained Infertility with Radionuclide Hysterosalpingography

The functional status of the Fallopian tubes in patients with unexplained infertility (UI) was evaluated with radionuclide hysterosalpinography (RN-HSG). The rate of bilateral tubal occlusion with RN-HSG in women with UI (3/18 = 16.7%) was considerably higher than in a group of fertile and male-infertile women (0/28 = 0%), implying that a number of cases with UI might be associated with functional rather than anatomical tubal defects. RN-HSG is a simple, innocuous and potentially useful method for assessing functional tubal occlusion, and it might give a better understanding of the functional status of the tubes in UI.

Borderline Epithelial Ovarian Tumours

Twenty-four patients with borderline epithelial ovarian tumours treated in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Hacettepe University during the last 12 years were evaluated with regard to histopathology, therapeutic modalities employed and outcome. No mortality was encountered among the 23 patients with Stage 1 disease, regardless of the surgical mode of treatment or adjuvant therapy. The related literature was reviewed briefly to help enlighten the controversial issue of borderline ovarian tumours.