A prospective, randomized, double‐blind controlled trial of laparoscopic uterine nerve ablation in the treatment of pelvic pain associated with endometriosis

Chris Sutton, Andrew S. Pooley, Kevin Jones, Richard W. Dover, Patricia Haines
In: Gynaecological Endoscopy · 2001 · vol. 10(4) , pp. 217–222 · doi:10.1046/j.1365-2508.2001.00451.x · W2045954778
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 47 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Laparoscopic uterine nerve ablation added no benefit to laser ablation of endometriosis in reducing dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, or chronic non-menstrual pelvic pain.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

To determine the value of laparoscopic uterine nerve ablation (LUNA) as part of the laparoscopic laser treatment of painful endometriosis. A prospective randomized double‐blind controlled trial. A referral centre for the treatment of endometriosis. 51 women with pelvic pain and pelvic endometriosis. All patients underwent laparoscopic laser ablation of their endometriosis and were then randomly allocated to receive LUNA or no further treatment. Dysmenorrhoea, dyspareunia and chronic non‐menstrual pelvic pain were assessed using visual analogue scales and structured questionnaires, preoperatively and at 3 and 6 months postoperatively. 24 patients were randomly allocated to receive laser vaporization alone, and 27 to receive a LUNA procedure in addition. The mean age of the patients involved was 28 years (range 20–41), with no differences between the groups for stage of endometriosis. Comparisons were made between the two treatment groups at 3 and 6 months. Significant differences in favour of the non‐LUNA group were found at 3 months ( P = 0.003), and at 6 months ( P = 0.022) for dysmenorrhoea. A significant difference in favour of the non‐LUNA group also occurred at 6 months for chronic non‐menstrual pain ( P = 0.323). There were no significant differences recorded for dyspareunia. Bonferroni's adjustment was applied, and the only difference which remained significant was for dysmenorrhoea at 3 months ( P = 0.033) in favour of the non‐LUNA group. The preoperative and 6‐month pain scores for all the patients were combined. There was a significant improvement in the pain scores recorded at 6 months ( P < 0.0001). Laparoscopic laser ablation of endometriosis is confirmed as an effective treatment, to which uterine nerve ablation adds no benefit.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosisdysmenorrheadyspareunia

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (17)

Cited by (47)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK