Laparoscopic findings in patients with pelvic pain.

We have reviewed 1,194 charts of consecutive patients who had a diagnostic laparoscopy for pelvic pain from January 1, 1972, to December 31, 1980, at the Deaconess Division of the Buffalo General Hospital. A total of 749 of these patients had normal pelvic examinations prior to the diagnostic laparoscopy; 479 (63%) had abnormal findings on diagnostic laparoscopy. Of the 445 patients with abnormal pelvic examinations, 78 (17.5%) had normal findings on diagnostic laparoscopy. The laparoscopic findings and ovarian pathology are reviewed. These results are substantiated by other reports in the literature and certainly justify the increasing use of the laparoscope as a diagnostic tool in the gynecologist's armamentarium.