Endometriomul ovarian – vârful aisbergului?

Abstract

Endometriosis is a chronic disease that affects around 10% of women who are of reproductive age. It may lead to significant morbidity, and it is a serious public health concern. Ovarian lesions, such as endometriomas or traditional ovarian cysts, are the most common localizations of endometriosis. Transvaginal ultrasonography is the first-line imaging modality for predicting deeply infiltrating endometriosis and is a straightforward diagnostic technique with a good diagnostic accuracy for endometriomas. A total of 437 patients who underwent preoperative ultrasonography examination and underwent surgery for deeply infiltrating endometriosis were included in our retrospective observational study. Of these, 45.2% (152 patients) had an endometriosis cyst diagnosis alone, with no further deep endometriosis lesions detected by ultrasonography; nevertheless, a number of patients had numerous deeply infiltrating lesions diagnosed intraoperatively. The objective of the present research was to evaluate the correlation between the sonographic identification of ovarian endometriomas and the detection of particular extraovarian endometriotic lesions, such as parametrial, rectovaginal and intestinal lesions, using transvaginal ultrasound.