Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Nov 26, 2022; 10(33): 12136-12145
Published online Nov 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i33.12136
Diagnosis and treatment of tubal endometriosis in women undergoing laparoscopy: A case series from a single hospital
Hai-Ning Jiao, Wei Song, Wei-Wei Feng, Hua Liu
Hai-Ning Jiao, Wei Song, Wei-Wei Feng, Hua Liu, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200025, China
Author contributions: Jiao HN and Liu H contributed to the planning, conduction and report of the work; Jiao HN, Song W and Feng WW contributed to the conception and design of the work; Jiao HN, Feng WW and Liu H contributed to the acquisition of analysis and interpretation of the results; All authors have read and approved the manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. This study was approved by Ethic Committee of Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University (No. KY2022-126).
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent. Due to the retrospective nature of the study, informed consent was waived.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We have no conflict-of-interest to disclose.
Data sharing statement: The research data used to support the findings of this study were supplied by Prof. Liu under license and so cannot be made freely available. Requests for access to these data should be made to Prof. Liu (Email: lh11239@rjh.com.cn).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hua Liu, PhD, Chief Doctor, Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, No. 197 Ruijin Er Road, Shanghai 200025, China. lh11239@rjh.com.cn
Received: July 6, 2022
Peer-review started: July 6, 2022
First decision: September 25, 2022
Revised: September 30, 2022
Accepted: October 26, 2022
Article in press: October 26, 2022
Published online: November 26, 2022
Processing time: 140 Days and 4.8 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Tubal endometriosis (TEM) is a category of pelvic endometriosis (EM) that is characterized by ectopic endometrial glands and/or stroma within any part of the fallopian tube. The fallopian tubes may be a partial source of ovarian endometriosis (OEM). TEM is difficult to diagnose during surgery and is usually detected by pathology after surgery.

AIM

To provide a clinical basis for the diagnosis and treatment of TEM.

METHODS

In this study, the data of 30 patients who underwent laparoscopic salpingectomy due to various gynecological diseases and had pathological confirmation of TEM at our hospital were retrospectively analyzed, and the clinical basis for the diagnosis and treatment of TEM was evaluated.

RESULTS

Among 1982 surgical patients, 30 met the study criteria. Among those, 6 patients had a history of infertility, 12 patients had a history of artificial abortion, 13 patients had a history of cesarean section, 1 patient had a history of tubal ligation, 4 patients had an intrauterine device, and 22 patients had hydrosalpinx. Sixteen patients (53.33%) conceived naturally and gave birth to healthy babies. Pathology showed that only 2 patients had TEM without any other gynecological diseases, while the others all had simultaneous diseases, including 26 patients with EM at other pelvic sites.

CONCLUSION

The final diagnosis of TEM depends on pathological examination since there are no specific clinical characteristics. The rate of TEM combined with EM (especially OEM) was higher than that of other gynecological diseases, which indicates that TEM is related to OEM.

Keywords: Endometriosis; Fallopian tubes; Ovary; Laparoscopy; Infertility; Pathology

Core Tip: Tubal endometriosis (TEM) is a category of pelvic endometriosis that is characterized by ectopic endometrial glands and/or stroma within any part of the fallopian tube. The fallopian tubes may be a partial source of ovarian endometriosis (OEM). In this study, 30 patients who underwent laparoscopic salpingectomy due to various gynecological diseases and were pathologically confirmed as having TEM at our hospital were retrospectively analyzed to provide a clinical basis for the diagnosis and treatment of TEM. The final diagnosis of TEM depends on pathological examination since there are no specific clinical characteristics. The rate of TEM combined with OEM was higher than that of other gynecological diseases, which indicates that TEM is related to OEM.