Severe endometriosis: laparoscopic rectum resection

Endometriosis is a frequent benign disease of women in reproductive age. An infiltration of the spatium rectovaginal is rare, but if it occurs, in up to 73% the rectum is involved. If there is the indication for surgery, a partial resection of the rectum might be necessary. This can be performed by a laparoscopic approach. It is the aim of this work to describe a patient population treated for endometriosis in the spatium rectovaginal by laparoscopic surgery.

A retrospective analysis of data from patients with endometriosis in rectum or sigma, which underwent a laparoscopic partial bowel resection in the years 2005-2006 at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Regensburg, was carried out.

Between 2005 and 2006, we performed a laparoscopic partial bowel resection in six patients with endometriosis. The mean age at diagnosis was 36.1 years (range 28-50 years) and 36.5 years (range 30-50 years) at surgery. All patients were nulligravida and 50% of the patients were infertile (since 1-6 years). The interval between the onset of symptoms and surgery ranged from a few weeks up to 2.5 years. Two-thirds of the patients had endocrine treatment before surgery. Three patients had a rectum resection, one a sigma resection and two had a combined rectum- and sigma resection. The mean duration of surgery was 201 min and mean hospital stay was 8 days. We saw one post-surgery bleeding at the enteroanastomosis. In that case two erythrocyte concentrates were necessary and the bleeding was stopped by rectoscopic intervention. All follow-up coloscopies were without pathological findings. One patient had a normal delivery after IVF/ICSI treatment.

If severe endometriosis needs a rectum resection then it can be done laparoscopically. This surgery should be performed in a specialized center. The duration of surgery, hospital stay and time of convalescence are short.