Endometriosis in Patients Undergoing Plastic Surgical Procedures: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Endometriosis is a common gynecological disorder described as the presence of functional endometrial tissue outside the uterus, which can also be found in extrapelvic locations. Although patients seeking treatment for endometriosis usually present to gynecologists, there are rare cases of endometriosis encountered by plastic surgeons in routine practice, either incidentally or as a concomitant finding.

We present a rare case of a 36-year-old woman with symptoms of panniculitis desiring panniculectomy. During surgery, an abdominal mass was excised and confirmed by pathological analysis to be endometriosis. A comprehensive literature review was conducted using the PubMed search engine of the National Institutes of Health to identify cases of endometriosis in plastic surgery. Following screening of the results, 14 articles were included in this analysis that fit the criteria of our search.

Of the 14 articles reviewed, cutaneous endometriosis was the most common subtype found in plastic surgery. None of the studies described findings of endometriosis in routine panniculectomies. Several identified endometriosis discovered during cosmetic abdominoplasties.

Endometriosis encountered in plastic surgery is a rare but clinically important occurrence, with the cutaneous subtype representing the majority of cases. Endometriosis should always be on the differential diagnosis when an abdominal mass is found in a patient with a history of abdominal surgery. Abdominal masses found during routine aesthetic or reconstructive surgery should be submitted for tissue analysis to guide possible secondary treatments.