Surgical treatment of rectovaginal endometriosis with extensive vaginal infiltration: results of a systematic three-step vagino-laparoscopic approach

Roberto Angioli, Carlo De Cicco Nardone, Ester Valentina Cafà, Cafà EV, Francesco Plotti, Ludovico Muzii, Roberto Montera, Guzzo F, Federica Guzzo, Daniela Luvero, Luvero D, Corrado Terranova
European journal of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology · 2013 · vol. 173 , pp. 83–87 · doi:10.1016/j.ejogrb.2013.10.031 · PMID:24246369 · W2091037616
Observational OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 12 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by gemini-2.5-flash-lite, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This paper reports the outcomes of a systematic three-step vagino-laparoscopic surgical approach for rectovaginal endometriosis with extensive vaginal infiltration.

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

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Recto-vaginal endometriosis remains a surgical challenge. We propose a systematic surgical approach combining vaginal and laparoscopic steps for patients affected by deep endometriosis infiltrating the vaginal wall. STUDY DESIGN: This is a prospective observational study, performed at Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, University Teaching Hospital. All consecutive patients, from 2008 to 2011, affected by symptomatic deep recto-vaginal endometriosis with full thickness vaginal wall involvement, underwent a systematic surgical approach, based on three consecutive surgical steps: vaginal route, laparoscopic approach and final vaginal excision. All patients included in the study were scheduled for two years' follow-up with pelvic examination, transvaginal ultrasound and visual analog scale (VAS) evaluation of symptoms (dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia and chronic pelvic pain) at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months. RESULTS: Thirty-four patients were enrolled. No major complications were registered. Complications included superficial vascular lesions in two cases (5.9%), ureteral stenosis two weeks after surgery in one patient (2.9%), and bowel obstruction for paralytic ileus in one patient (2.9%). A de novo endometrioma was found at 12 months after surgery and a recurrent endometrioma was evident at 24 months. For all symptoms evaluated, there was a significant improvement within 3 months after surgery (p<0.05) and no statistically significant difference during follow-up (at 3, 6, 12 and 24 months). CONCLUSION: The proposed systematic surgical approach consisting of three consecutive steps could simplify the approach to deep endometriosis while at the same time increasing the quality of endometriosis surgery, with important benefit for the women affected.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosischronic_pelvic_painbowel_endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Laparoscopy Pelvic Pain Rectal Diseases Vaginal Diseases Adult Adult Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Female Female Humans Humans Laparoscopy Laparoscopy Pain Measurement Pain Measurement Pelvic Pain

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 (27)

Cited by (12)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-10-11T09:27:45.537177+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-10-08T21:12:56.342978+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK