Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Surgical treatment of vulvar vestibulitis: a review

2010; Informa; Volume: 89; Issue: 11 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3109/00016349.2010.512071

1600-0412

Päivi Tommola, Leila Unkila‐Kallio, Jorma Paavonen,

Urinary Bladder and Prostate Research

Abstract Vulvar vestibulitis syndrome, a subset of vulvodynia, is a complex pain syndrome. It causes severe dyspareunia and affects mainly young women. The etiology is unknown and no uniformly effective treatment exists. Surgery has been considered as ‘the last resort’ in the management of patients not responding to conservative treatment modalities. For this review, all studies of surgical treatment of vulvar vestibulitis were evaluated. We describe the evolution of vestibulectomy techniques through the years. Our aim was also to find out whether any surgical technique is better than others providing better patient satisfaction and lower complication rates. We conclude that surgical technique as such plays a relatively small role. Surgery seems to be effective. However, lack of randomized trials and insufficient data on complication rates must be emphasized.