Fig 1.
Response of deep dyspareunia intensity (primary outcome) to nerve-sparing laparoscopy.
Deep dyspareunia was assessed on a self-reported 11-point numeric rating scale (NRS) on two occasions: prior to surgery (during the preoperative evaluation period) and at six-month follow-up. (A) NRS ↓ by 3 points or more. (B) NRS changed by less than 3 points. (C) NRS ↑ by 3 points or more. (D) NRS ≤ 3 both before and after surgery [42 women reported no dyspareunia (NRS = 0) both before and after surgery 71.2% (95%CI: 59.4–82.8)]. (E) NRS prior to surgery = 0 and NRS ↑ by 3 points or more. According to the scores, dyspareunia was hierarchically categorized as none/mild (0–3), moderate/tolerable (4–6), and severe/terrific dyspareunia (7–10).
Table 1.
Demographic characteristics prior to surgery (N = 121).
Fig 2.
The severity of deep dyspareunia (primary outcome).
It was assessed on a self-reported 11-point numeric rating scale (NRS) in two moments: prior to surgery (during the preoperative evaluation period) and at six-month follow-up (N = 121). (A) and (C): Boxplots show the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles; nonparametric independent-samples Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison (P < .001); asterisks were used to identify extreme outliers (values higher than 3 x interquartile range). (B) and (D): Point to point lines highlighting the different individual changes; the lines were colored just to emphasize being different women (coincidentally, some cases generated overlapping lines).
Table 2.
Demographic characteristics, personal habits and obstetric history of the 22 women who were not considered responders for deep dyspareunia.
Table 3.
Possible confounders in assessing pain response to surgery and the changes in self-reported endometriosis-related symptoms assessed prior to surgery and at follow-up in the 22 women who were not considered responders for deep dyspareunia.
Table 4.
Systematic description of the surgical procedures concerning the main sites of endometriosis in the 22 women who were not considered responders for deep dyspareunia.
Table 5.
Classification of endometriosis and specific comments about the surgery performed in the 22 women who were not considered responders for deep dyspareunia.