Diagnosis and Treatment of Bladder Endometriosis: State of the Art

Carmen Maccagnano, Federico Pellucchi, Lorenzo Rocchini, Massimo Ghezzi, Vincenzo Scattoni, Francesco Montorsi, Patrizio Rigatti, Renzo Colombo
Urologia internationalis · 2012 · vol. 89(3) , pp. 249–258 · doi:10.1159/000339519 · PMID:22813980 · W2080712840
review OA: bronze CC0 ⤵ 71 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

This literature review details the diagnosis and surgical urological treatment of bladder endometriosis, the most common urinary tract involvement, noting recurrence rates for combined and hormonal therapies.

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Abstract

BACKGROUND: The bladder is the most common affected site in urinary tract endometriosis, being diagnosed during gynecologic follow-up. The surgical urological treatment might lead to good results. STUDY OBJECTIVE: To define the state of the art in the diagnosis and treatment of bladder endometriosis. METHODS: We performed a literature review by searching the MEDLINE database for articles published between 1996 and 2011, limiting the searches to the words: urinary tract endometriosis, bladderendometriosis, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. RESULTS: Deep pelvic endometriosis usually involves the urinary system, with the bladder being affected in 85% of cases. The diagnosis has to be considered as a step-by-step procedure. Currently, the treatment is usually surgical, consisting of either transurethral resection or partial cystectomy, and eventually associated with hormonal therapy. The hormonal therapy alone counteracts only the stimulus of endometriotic tissue proliferation, with no effects on the scarring caused by this tissue. The overall recurrence rate is about 30% for combined therapies and about 35% for the hormonal treatment alone. CONCLUSIONS: The bladder is the most common affected site in urinary tract endometriosis. Most of the time, this condition is diagnosed because of the complaint of urinary symptoms during gynecologic follow-up procedures for a deep pelvic endometriosis: a close collaboration between the gynecologist and the urologist is advisable, especially in highly specialized centers. The surgical urological treatment might lead to good results in terms of patients' compliance and prognosis.

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Condition tags

mesh:D004715endometriosisbladder_endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Urinary Bladder Urinary Bladder Diseases Cystectomy Cystectomy Diagnosis, Differential Endometriosis Female Hormones Hormones Humans Prognosis Recurrence Treatment Outcome Ultrasonography Urinary Bladder Urinary Bladder Urinary Bladder Diseases Urinary Bladder Diseases

Citation neighborhood

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.

References (86)

Cited by (50)

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europepmc
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License: CC0 · commercial use OK