Research Article Standardization of Laparoscopic Pelvic Examination:

Copyright © 2013 Mohamed A. Bedaiwy et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective. Laparoscopic pelvic assessment is often performed in a nonstandardized fashion depending on the surgeon’s discretion. Reporting anatomic findings is inconsistent and lesions in atypical locations may be missed. We propose a method for systematic pelvic assessment based on anatomical landmarks. Design. Retrospective analysis. Setting. Tertiary care academic medical center. Intervention. We applied this system to operative reports of 540 patients who underwent diagnostic or operative laparoscopy for unexplained infertility between 2006 and 2012.The pelvis was divided into 2 midline zones (zone I and II) and right and left lateral zones (zone III and IV). All reports were evaluated for the comprehensiveness of description with respect to normal findings or pathology for each zone. Results. Of 540 surgeries, all reports commented on the uterus, tubes, and ovaries (100%), but only 17% (