To leave or not to leave? A retrospective review of appendectomy during diagnostic laparoscopy for chronic pelvic pain.

Chronic pelvic pain in females is a common symptom encountered by family practitioners, gynecologists, gastroenterologists, and general surgeons. In this study, we retrospectively reviewed the charts of 22 female patients who had chronic pelvic pain or acute exacerbation of chronic pelvic pain. None had signs of appendicitis. All were treated with a diagnostic laparoscopy with appendectomy. Of the 22 patients, 20 had complete relief of their pain; 17 had an abnormal histopathological diagnosis of their appendices.