Endometriosis in Abdominal Scars: A Report of Three Cases Diagnosed by Fine-Needle Aspiration Biopsy

A Simsir, Aylin Simsir, K Thorner, Kim Thorner, J Waisman, Jerry Waisman, Joan Cangiarella, J Cangiarella
The American surgeon · 2001 · vol. 67(10) , pp. 984–986 · doi:10.1177/000313480106701015 · PMID:11603558 · W166227064
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 53 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

Fine-needle aspiration biopsy diagnosed three cases of abdominal wall endometriomas in patients with no prior endometriosis history, presenting as painful nodules in surgical scars.

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

Abstract

Endometrioma in an operative scar is rare. The majority of patients have no prior history of endometriosis, and symptoms may mimic postoperative hernias. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB) can be a valuable diagnostic aid in the evaluation of these subcutaneous abdominal masses. We present the cytologic findings in three cases of abdominal wall endometriomas diagnosed by FNAB. The patients ranged from 31 to 51 years of age. None had a history of endometriosis, but all had prior abdominal operations (two abdominal hysterectomies for fibroids and one cesarean section). They presented 6 months to 7 years later with painful subcutaneous abdominal nodules in their scars ranging from 2 to 6 cm. FNAB was performed by a cytopathologist. The smears were cellular and comprised two distinct cell populations. An epithelial component consisted of flat sheets of polygonal cells with round to oval nuclei and scant cytoplasm. The second component consisted of clusters of fusiform stromal cells. Numerous hemosiderin-laden macrophages were noted in the background. Cytokeratin highlighted the epithelial clusters, and vimentin stained the stromal cells. Electron microscopy showed two epithelial cell types: one with cilia and abundant rough endoplasmic reticulum and the other with numerous microvilli and scattered mitochondria indicative of endometrial differentiation. FNAB provided a rapid and accurate preoperative diagnosis in each case.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosisendometrioma

MeSH descriptors

Abdominal Muscles Cicatrix Endometriosis Abdominal Muscles Adult Biopsy, Needle Cicatrix Cicatrix Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Humans Middle Aged Muscular Diseases Muscular Diseases Muscular 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 (10)

Cited by (50)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-06-20T06:14:18.781669+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:13:19.284922+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK