Endometriosis MDC: role of the radiologist

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This review discusses the increasing importance of radiologists in multidisciplinary endometriosis care, particularly for diagnosing and mapping advanced disease.

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This comprehensive review discusses how shifting guideline recommendations toward imaging for initial diagnosis and presurgical mapping of endometriosis affect the radiologist’s role within multidisciplinary team (MDC) care for advanced endometriosis, including opportunities for radiologists to add value in an endometriosis service. The paper’s key premise is that imaging findings and reporting can support diagnostic assessment and management planning as laparoscopy is no longer positioned as first-line in guidelines. A major limitation is that, as a narrative review, it does not generate new datasets or directly test specific interventions. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it focuses on the radiologist’s role in multidisciplinary team-driven imaging assessment and mapping for advanced endometriosis.

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Abstract

Endometriosis presents a common and significant health burden affecting approximately 1 in 10 reproductive age patients who are assigned female at birth. Recently guidelines have begun shifting away from laparoscopy as the first-line diagnostic tool and instead recommend imaging for initial diagnosis and presurgical mapping of endometriosis. This shift places the radiologist in a central role for diagnosis and assessment of management efforts. During this comprehensive review article, we discuss the importance of MDC in the treatment of advanced endometriosis, the radiologist 's role at endometriosis MDC as well as the opportunities that exist for the radiologist to add-value in an endometriosis service.
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Abstract

Endometriosis presents a common and significant health burden affecting approximately 1 in 10 reproductive age patients who are assigned female at birth. Recently guidelines have begun shifting away from laparoscopy as the first-line diagnostic tool and instead recommend imaging for initial diagnosis and presurgical mapping of endometriosis. This shift places the radiologist in a central role for diagnosis and assessment of management efforts. During this comprehensive review article, we discuss the importance of MDC in the treatment of advanced endometriosis, the radiologist ‘s role at endometriosis MDC as well as the opportunities that exist for the radiologist to add-value in an endometriosis service. Similar content being viewed by others Data Availability No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

References

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Individualized medicine using 3D printing technology in gynecology: a scoping review. 3D Print Med. 2023; 9(1):1–15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41205-023-00169-9 Author information Authors and Affiliations Contributions BB, ZE, PJ, AK wrote the main manuscript All authors edited the manuscript AK provided all figures Ania Kielar is president of the Canadian Association of Radiologsits. Corresponding authors Ethics declarations Conflict of interest The authors declare no competing interests. Additional information Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Rights and permissions Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. About this article Cite this article Buckley, B., Elias, Z., Khatri, G. et al. Endometriosis MDC: role of the radiologist. Abdom Radiol 50, 4914–4926 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-025-04920-0 Received: Revised: Accepted: Published: Version of record: Issue date: DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-025-04920-0

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Outcome instruments

rASRM Enzian

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endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis

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