Morbid obesity in pregnancy is a growing problem and is having an impact on morbidity, mortality as well as significantly increasing antenatal and intra-partum costs of pregnancy care. The incidence of morbid obesity in pregnancy in our unit was 7.5% during the study period and this was associated with statistically significant increased maternal and perinatal morbidity. It also led to increased costs because of multidisciplinary management of the pregnancies, increased investigations and hospital stay when compared with normal weight pregnant women. Looking after morbidly obese pregnant women is an expensive undertaking, as the cost of the care of one morbidly obese pregnant woman and her baby is several times that of the normal weight woman. Health planners need to factor in these costs which are set to escalate given the predicted increase in the obese population in the UK.

This is a study to detect the correlation between laparoscopic diagnosis of endometriosis and histological findings. It is a retrospective study of 63 patients undergoing laparoscopy for pelvic pain at the University Hospital of North Durham, of whom 48 had excision of endometriosis. Scissors and graspers were used to dissect suspected endometriotic lesions laparoscopically. The tissues obtained were examined at the histology department to confirm the diagnosis. Positive histology for endometriosis was confirmed in 75% of cases, the histology was negative in 18.7% and in 6.3% was non-diagnostic. The study confirmed that correlation between laparoscopic findings and positive histology was dependent on the site of lesion and the stage of endometriosis. As more information was provided to the laboratory and as the pathologists became accustomed to looking for the disease, there was a higher detection of endometriosis.