Is helium thermal coagulator therapy for the treatment of women with minimal to moderate endometriosis cost-effective? A prospective randomised controlled trial

Savita Lalchandani, Andrew Baxter, Kevin Phillips
In: Gynecological Surgery · 2005 · vol. 2(4) , pp. 255–258 · doi:10.1007/s10397-005-0123-7 · W2100970095
article OA: bronze CC0 ⤵ 11 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06+body, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This randomized controlled trial found helium thermal coagulator therapy to be cheaper and more effective than GnRH analogue therapy for minimal to moderate endometriosis.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This prospective randomized controlled trial assessed cost-effectiveness and operating time of helium thermal coagulator (HTC) therapy versus gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogue (GnRH-a) with add-back therapy in 35 women with pain and laparoscopically confirmed minimal to moderate endometriosis, randomizing participants at the time of diagnostic laparoscopy. Over 12 months of follow-up, symptom-free status and need for additional treatment were tracked, and direct treatment costs from diagnosis to symptom relief or cure were compared using the Mann–Whitney test. The surgical arm had lower total average cost per patient (£323.29) than the medical arm (£918.12, p<0.0001), with longer mean operating time in surgery (32.35 vs 20.83 minutes) and no reported surgical complications, though the medical group had substantial subsequent surgical escalation. The paper links to endometriosis centrally by evaluating HTC versus GnRH-a treatment for women with minimal to moderate endometriosis and concluding surgical management was cheaper and more effective under available facilities and expertise.

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Condition tags

endometriosis

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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. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

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