Endorectal ultrasonography in predicting rectal wall infiltration in patients with deep pelvic endometriosis: a modern tool for an ancient disease

Bahr A, Abbas Bahr, Vincent de Parades, de Parades V, Pierre Gadonneix, Gadonneix P, Isabelle Etienney, Etienney I, Delphine Salet-Lizée, D. Salet-Lizée, Salet-Lizée D, Richard Villet, R. Villet, Villet R, Atienza P, Patrick Atienza
Diseases of the colon and rectum · 2006 · vol. 49(6) , pp. 869–875 · doi:10.1007/s10350-006-0501-x · PMID:16583293 · W2022523645
Diagnostic accuracy OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 23 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

Endorectal ultrasonography demonstrated high sensitivity and specificity in predicting rectal wall infiltration by deep pelvic endometriosis, validating its use for surgical planning.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

PURPOSE: This study evaluated the validity of endorectal ultrasonography in predicting rectal infiltration in patients with deep pelvic endometriosis. METHODS: Patients were recruited consecutively in the Department of Surgical Gynecology of Diaconesses Hospital from April 1996 to July 2003. Inclusion criteria were the suspicion of deep pelvic endometriosis on the basis of outpatient history and/or clinical symptoms with a mass palpable on bimanual examination that might infiltrate the rectal wall. There were no exclusion criteria. Endorectal ultrasonography was performed by the same investigator with a 7.5-MHz to 10-MHz rigid probe, producing a 360 degrees view of the rectal wall and adjacent areas. We used surgical and histopathologic findings as the "gold standard" to evaluate the validity of endorectal ultrasonography. RESULTS: This study was based on 37 patients (mean age, 35.8 (range, 26-46) years) who underwent surgery. The time between endorectal ultrasonography and surgery ranged from 4 to 529 (mean, 88.7) days. Eight patients had endometriosis nodules penetrating the rectal wall. Endorectal ultrasonography showed sensitivity, specificity, a positive predictive value, and a negative predictive value of 87.5, 97, 87.5, and 97 percent, respectively, in the diagnosis of infiltration of the rectal wall by endometriosis. CONCLUSIONS: Endorectal ultrasonography is a reliable technique for visualizing rectal infiltration in patients with deep pelvic endometriosis. It should be more widely used by gynecologists because knowing about rectal infiltration before surgery is fundamental to defining the best possible surgical approach.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Adnexal Diseases Endometriosis Endosonography Endosonography Rectal Diseases Adnexal Diseases Adnexal Diseases Adnexal Diseases Adult Adult Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Female Follow-Up Studies Follow-Up Studies Humans Humans Middle Aged

Citation neighborhood (2-hop)

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. Outer rings show 2-hop neighbours — papers reached through the immediate citers/citees. [ collapse to 1-hop ]

References (36)

Cited by (23)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-19T06:17:24.038039+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-08T21:03:44.483075+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-10-18T06:28:46.490043+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK