title: Peritoneal surgery in the treatment of endometriosis--excision or thermal ablation?
abstract: Twenty patients with Stage 2 to 4 endometriosis were referred to an Endometriosis Clinic with an average of 3.4 previous medical and surgical treatments. All were treated by peritoneal excision. Follow-up was for 9-36 months and 14 had a further laparoscopy. Seventeen of 20 patients are free of symptoms. In 1 patient recurrence occurred in a separate site and in 2 there were lesions close to the original lesion in the pouch of Douglas and bladder wall. In addition, 1 of the 14 patients having further laparoscopy had mild adhesions. The satisfactory results of the study suggest that a controlled trial comparing peritoneal excision and thermal ablation is worthwhile. There are considerable theoretical advantages in using peritoneal excision rather than peritoneal thermal ablation.
authors.affiliation: Endosurgical Unit, Mercy Hospital for Women, Melbourne, Victoria.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Maher
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017115:Catheter Ablation; D004312:Douglas' Pouch / Q000601:surgery; D004715:Endometriosis / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010537:Peritoneum / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome