Search

Background: Guidelines exist for the management of endometriosis. Validated and reliable appraisal tools exist to assess the quality of guidelines., Objectives: To systematically appraise the quality of guidelines for the management of pelvic pain associated with endometriosis., Search Strategy: Guidelines were identified using a prospective protocol through a systematic search of MEDLINE (1951-2005), EMBASE (1974-2005), the Cochrane Library (2005, issue 2), known guideline websites and the World Wide Web., Selection Criteria: Type of document: guideline, consensus statement, care protocol or healthcare technology assessment produced by national or international professional organisations and societies or governmental agencies; subject: management of pelvic pain associated with endometriosis., Data Collection and Analysis: Two validated appraisal tools, Cluzeau and The Appraisal of Guidelines and Research and Evaluation (AGREE), were used to quantitatively assess the quality of guidelines. Areas evaluated included 'rigour of development', 'context and content' and 'application.', Main Results: Eight of 596 potentially relevant citations identified met our inclusion criteria. The Cluzeau instrument quality score were the following: rigour of development, 53% (range 5-65%); context and content, 69% (range 29-79%) and application 20% (range 0-20%). The application dimension achieved significantly lower quality scores (P = 0.026 versus rigour of development and P = 0.017 versus context and content). The AGREE instrument quality scores were the following: scope and purpose, 68% (range 17-89%); stakeholder involvement, 33% (range 13-63%); rigour of development, 49% (range 10-81%); clarity of presentation, 55% (range 42-67%); applicability, 14% (range 0-28%) and editorial independence, 28% (range 8-67%). The applicability domain achieved significantly lower quality scores (P = 0.001 versus scope and purpose and P = 0.009 versus rigour of development)., Author's Conclusions: Guidelines for the management of pelvic pain associated with endometriosis do not comply with the recommendations for high-quality standards.

Radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy is the standard surgical treatment for early stage cervical cancer. This operation is well recognised as having a higher morbidity and mortality rate than a simple hysterectomy. We studied the histology results of 131 patients who had standard surgery for cervical cancer to ascertain if a radical hysterectomy was required for adequate treatment. Of 110 (84%) patients with negative pelvic lymphadenopathy, only 9 (8%) had positive parametrial histology and all required adjuvant therapy independent of their parametrial histology. This study confirms that a less radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy provides adequate treatment and allows us to consider a more conservative, minimal access approach to the management of these patients.

Objective: To develop a simple but sensitive instrument to evaluate and document symptoms of both bowel and urinary dysfunction in women., Design: A 22-item questionnaire covering a range of bowel and urinary symptoms was developed and underwent rigorous psychometric testing., Setting: The gynaecology departments of three hospitals, a urogynaecology clinic, a functional bowel clinic and a general practice., Population: Six hundred and thirty women, comprising four groups: 1. women awaiting hysterectomy (n = 379), 2. women following hysterectomy (n = 45), 3. women referred with functional bowel and/or urinary symptoms (n = 65), 4. asymptomatic controls (n = 141)., Main Outcome Measures: The content, construct and criterion validity, internal consistency, reliability and responsiveness of the questionnaire were measured. RESULTS Peer and patient reports and missing data patterns supported face and content validity. Factor analysis showed a clinically relevant four-factor structure with low content replication able to distinguish between patient groups, indicating good internal structure. Comparison with clinical, anorectal physiological, videoproctographic, transit time and urodynamic test results provide provisional indication of criterion validity. Key domain question analysis and Cronbach's alphas showed internal consistency. Kappa values demonstrated good test-retest reliability and key question correlation over time proved responsiveness., Conclusions: Our findings support the suitability, clinical validity, reliability and responsiveness of a simple questionnaire, which is sensitive to the constraints of clinical practice. The authors recommend its use in health care evaluation research assessing the effects of pelvic surgery and as a useful tool in comparing treatment efficacy.

Objective: To determine the accuracy of outpatient endometrial biopsy in diagnosing endometrial cancer in women with abnormal uterine bleeding., Design: A systematic quantitative review of published research., Methods: Studies were selected if accuracy of outpatient endometrial biopsy was estimated compared with a reference standard. Diagnostic accuracy was determined by pooled likelihood ratios for positive and negative test results. There were 1013 subjects in 13 diagnostic evaluations reported in 11 primary studies., Results: A positive test result on outpatient biopsy diagnosed endometrial cancer with a pooled likelihood ratio of 66.48 (95% CI 30.04-147.13) while a negative test result had a pooled likelihood ratio of 0.14 (95% CI 0.08-0.27). The post test probability of endometrial cancer was 81.7% (95% CI 59.7%-92.9%) for a positive test and 0.9% (95% CI 0.4%-2.4%) for a negative test., Conclusion: Outpatient endometrial biopsy has a high overall accuracy in diagnosing endometrial cancer when an adequate specimen is obtained. A positive test result is more accurate for ruling in disease than a negative test result is for ruling it out. Therefore, in cases of abnormal uterine bleeding where symptoms persist despite negative biopsy, further evaluation will be warranted.