Laparoscopic Treatment of Ureteral Endometriosis: A Systematic Review.

Objective: To review the literature for the preoperative clinical characteristics, surgical findings, and outcomes of patients who underwent laparoscopic surgical treatment of ureteral endometriosis (UE).

Data Sources: A systematic search was performed in the PubMed and Scopus databases.

Methods Of Study Selection: Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, studies in English language that assessed UE treated surgically by laparoscopy published between 2008 and 2020 were selected.

Tabulation, Integration, And Results: In an initial search, 1313 articles were identified, 193 in PubMed and 1120 in Scopus databases. A total of 1291 articles that did not meet eligibility criteria were excluded. The remaining 22 studies were included in the final qualitative analysis, with a total of 1337 patients. Data on preoperative patient's characteristics, preoperative imaging examinations, intraoperative findings, and postoperative complications were abstracted by 1 author. The descriptive nature of included studies prevented the performance of meta-analysis. Preoperative symptoms included dysmenorrhea (76.3%), pelvic pain (59.6%), dyspareunia (46.2%), lower urinary tract symptoms (21.3%), and ureteral obstructive symptoms (9.9%). Intraoperative findings showed that UE lesions were left-sided in 55% of the cases, right-sided in 28.9% of the cases, and bilateral in 8.7% of the cases. Ureterolysis alone or before another technique was performed in 69.1% of the cases, ureteral resection followed by ureteroureteral anastomosis in 6%, ureteroneocystostomy after ureteral resection in 21%, and nephrectomy in 0.45% of the patients. Double-J ureteral stent placement was reported in 33.3% of the cases. Concomitant resection of the bladder owing to endometriosis involvement was performed in 15.5% of the cases. The prevalence of ureteral injury was 3.1%. Postoperative complications included ureteral fistula (2.8%), ureteral stenosis (24.2%), persistence/recurrence of UE (3.8%), and reoperation for fistula and/or stricture treatment (3.9%).

Conclusion: UE is associated with common endometriosis pain symptoms and a low rate of lower urinary tract symptoms. The standard surgical technique for UE treatment is not yet a consensus; however, the laparoscopic approach with previous ureterolysis, leaving ureteral resection only for refractory cases, seems to be a safe and effective treatment, with improvement of symptoms and few intraoperative and postoperative complications.