Laparoscopic nerve-sparing surgery of deep infiltrating endometriosis: description of the technique and patients' outcome

The radical surgery of the deep infiltrating endometriosis of the rectovaginal septum and the uterosacral ligaments with or without bowel resection can cause a serious damage of the pelvic autonomic nerves with urinary retention and the need of self-catheterization. We introduce a case series report of 16 patients with laparoscopic nerve-sparing surgery of deep infiltrating endometriosis. We describe the technique step by step and compare the patients' outcome with patients who had undergone a non-nerve-sparing surgical technique. In 12 patients, a double-sided and in four patients, a single-sided identification of the inferior hypogastric nerve and plexus were performed. In all patients at least single-sided resection of the uterosacral ligaments were performed. Postoperatively dysmenorrhoea, pelvic pain, and dyspareunia disappeared in all patients. The average operating time was 82 min (range 45-185). Postoperatively, the overall time to resume voiding function was 2 days. The residual urine volume was in all patients < 50 ml at two ultrasound measurements. Identification of the inferior hypogastric nerve and plexus was feasible. In comparison with non-nerve-sparing surgical technique, no cases of bladder self-catheterization for a long or even life time was observed, confirming the importance of the nerve-sparing surgical procedure.