Chronic pelvic inflammatory disease is also called sequelae of pelvic inflammatory disease

Pelvic inflammatory disease, or pelvic inflammation, refers to inflammation of the female pelvic reproductive organs, the connective tissue around the uterus, and the pelvic peritoneum. Chronic pelvic inflammation is often caused by incomplete treatment of the acute phase. It takes a long time to develop and is a stubborn disease. Bacteria retrogradely infect the uterus and fallopian tubes and reach the pelvic cavity. But in real life, not all women will suffer from pelvic inflammatory disease, only a few will. This is because the female reproductive system has a natural defense function that can resist bacterial invasion under normal circumstances. Pelvic inflammatory disease will only occur when the body's resistance is reduced or the natural defense function of women is destroyed due to other reasons.

Sequelae of pelvic inflammatory disease refers to a series of sequelae caused by pelvic inflammatory disease that is not treated promptly and correctly. In the past, it was mostly called chronic pelvic inflammation. In the past decade, literature and textbooks have abandoned this term and replaced it with sequelae of pelvic inflammatory disease, which are generally divided into short-term and long-term sequelae.

Short-term sequelae include perihepatitis, salpingitis, ovarian abscess, etc.

The incidence of long-term sequelae is about 25%, mainly including infertility, ectopic pregnancy, chronic pelvic pain, etc.

Short-term sequelae of pelvic inflammatory disease patients include perihepatitis (Filipino-Kohl syndrome), tubo-ovarian abscesses, and rare death. Long-term sequelae include infertility, ectopic pregnancy, and chronic pelvic pain. Sequelae of PID are related to whether PID can be diagnosed and effectively treated early, to "asymptomatic" or "hidden" PID, and to the number of PID attacks. Foreign literature reports that none of the patients with clinical PID symptoms treated within 2 days of symptom onset developed infertility. Another report found that the probability of infertility in patients treated 3 days after symptom onset was higher than that in patients treated within 3 days (19.7%: 8.3%).

In summary, the concept and diagnosis of chronic pelvic inflammatory disease are relatively vague. The chronic pelvic inflammatory disease previously diagnosed in China may include atypical or latent PID and recurrent PID, or may include PID sequelae or both. If the concept of chronic pelvic inflammatory disease in China continues, it may continue to lead to misdiagnosis and delayed treatment of a large part of PID, thus leading to the occurrence of PID sequelae.