Vulvodynia as a referred Pain: clinical experience of surgical treatment = Vulvodynia as a referred Pain: clinical experience of surgical treatment

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Objective: 3. Demonstrate a new instrument, technique or procedure
Target: 2. Adanced practicioners
Methods: Vulvodynia is chronic pain or discomfort around the opening of with vagina (vulva) for which there's no identifiable cause. Among the causes that can cause vulvodynia, we consider pelvic congestion syndrome, which is due to the enlarged and changed shape of veins in pelvic area, including around the ovarian veins. And we focused that vulvodynia may be a result of viscerosomatic referred pain. According to the integral theory, chronic pelvic pain may be caused by uterosacral ligament laxity, which can stimulate or irritate interior hypogastric plexus. For the last three years (from 2020 to 2022), we have performed about 30 laparoscopic operations (ovarian vein ligation with or without pectopexy and uterosacral ligament plication) for patients who suspected referred vulvodynia by pelvic congestion syndrome with or without lax uterosacral ligament.
Results: Laparoscopic ovarian vein ligation and utero-sacral ligament plication operation was performed on these patients with such pelvic pain, and it was confirmed that vulvodynia was great relieved and improved through the pain assessment test performed at the outpatient clinic after the operation.
Conclusion: In conclusion, when we manage patients suffering from vulvodynia we must first rule out specific identifiable cause of vulva pain, as well as the above two conditions, which may be cured with surgical treatment before nonspecific medical treatment from pain clinic or psychiatric department.