Chapter 64: Visual Appearance of Endometriosis

Hilgers TW; Martin D; Redwine D; Reich H; Kresch A

Endometriosis Diagnosis

Chapter 64: Visual Appearance of Endometriosis

Hilgers TW, Martin D, Redwine D, Reich H, Kresch A

The Medical and Surgical Practice of NaProTECHNOLOGY, 855-862, 2004

RRM Academy Synopsis

Endometriosis looks black, white, red or clear during laparoscopy

Endometriosis shows up in many looks at surgery, and black powder-burn spots are only one. This textbook chapter reprints 14 captioned photos and tissue slides from a 1991 atlas. Captions pair each lesion's look with its tissue findings.

Key Findings

Puckered black lesions are labeled classical and typical. Surgeons spot them most readily and biopsy or excise them most often.
Red polyps beside white scarred areas are most commonly endometriosis. Red polypoid areas have ranged from 0.4 mm to 7 mm.
Clear or white vesicles found on the tube itself are rarely endometriosis, though lesions lateral to the tube may be. One black scarred lesion in a uterosacral ligament held old suture material.
A 19-year-old's biggest lesion was a small red polyp, 400 microns across, made of endometrial glands and stroma.
In two figures, resected specimens showed residual endometriosis beneath carbon or granulation tissue left by CO2 laser vaporization.

RRM Context

Restorative care treats the disease itself. Treatment starts with knowing every form the disease takes. The chapter comes from the NaProTECHNOLOGY textbook, and the captions call resection a most predictable technique where laser vaporization left disease.

Our editorial summary of this paper, not the article's abstract.

Abstract

This chapter presents photographs and histopathologic slides reprinted, with permission, from the color atlas Laparoscopic Appearance of Endometriosis by Martin, Redwine, Reich and Kresch, to help physicians identify endometriosis. The chapter states that endometriosis has multiple appearances beyond the "powder burn" lesion, and its figures pair puckered black lesions, white scarred areas, red polypoid lesions, and clear polyps and vesicles with their histology. Captions also note that scarred black areas are not always endometriosis and that clear and white vesicles on the tube are rarely endometriosis. Two figures show residual endometriosis beneath carbon or granulation tissue after CO2 laser vaporization.

Read the guide

Endometriosis Explained: Diagnosis, Excision Surgery, and the RRM Approach

Topics

Endometriosis › Diagnosis › Staging and Classification · General Gynecology › Clinical Practice › Practice Patterns

Thomas W Hilgers, David B Redwine, Harry Reich

Tom Hilgers, T Hilgers, Dave Redwine, D Redwine, H Reich

Hilgers et al. 2004, Hilgers 2004

Chapter 64: Visual Appearance of Endometriosis

Endometriosis looks black, white, red or clear during laparoscopy

Key Findings

RRM Context

Abstract

Read the guide

Topics

By this author

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