Ovarian surgery in an infertility patient as an indication for a short-interval second-look laparoscopy: a preliminary study

The usefulness of a short-interval second-look laparoscopy (SLL) after ovarian surgery was examined. In 23 infertile women who had either bilateral wedge resection (BWR) of polycystic ovaries, an oophorocystectomy (OC), or resection of endometriomata (RE), adhesions were graded before and after surgery and before and after laparoscopic lysis for each ovary. At SLL, periovarian adhesions involving at least one ovary were observed in all women. Of the 22 women who wanted to become pregnant, 3 of 3 with BWR, 1 of 3 with OC, and 6 of 16 with RE conceived. In the women with residual adhesive disease in both or the only remaining adnexa after SLL, there were no pregnancies; whereas 67% of the women with at least one adnexa free of disease became pregnant (P = 0.005). This preliminary study indicates that ovarian surgery does result in significant adhesion formation and that SLL offers an opportunity to reassess the pelvis, to lyse adhesions, and to establish a postoperative prognosis.