[The use of the CO2 laser in the treatment of endometriosis. Experiments in rabbits].

Laser CO2 was used to treat lesions of endometriosis which were produced experimentally in New Zealand rabbits. After the cornu of the uterus had been resected, hyperplastic endometrium produced by giving oestrogens beforehand was dissected out and fixed on the parietal peritoneum of the lateral walls of the abdomen. Four weeks later the endometrial implants which had grown under oestrogen stimulation were looked at histologically and destroyed by vaporisation using laser CO2. Histological control of the areas that were treated showed at the end of the second week the destruction of the implants and the lesions in its neighbourhood to a range of 0.50 mm. The zones which were treated, although they had been partially deprived of peritoneum because of the infiltrating characteristic of endometriotic lesions, were covered with a new peritoneal serosa which was slightly inflammatory in nature but which did not give rise to secondary adhesions.