Laparoscopic excision of ovarian cysts: is the stripping technique a tissue-sparing procedure?

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether the stripping technique by laparoscopy is a tissue-sparing procedure.

Design: Prospective study.

Setting: University hospital.

Patient(s): Forty-two women, 21 to 35 years of age, who had a unilateral ovarian cyst (26 endometriomas, 7 serous, 6 dermoid, and 3 mucinous cysts).

Intervention(s): Laparoscopic excision of ovarian cysts by using the stripping technique.

Main outcome measure(s): Histologic analysis of the excised specimens was done to evaluate the presence and nature of ovarian tissue adjacent to the cyst wall.

Result(s): Recognizable ovarian tissue adjacent to the cyst wall was present in 15 of 42 excised specimens (36%). A significant difference was present for endometriomas versus non-endometriosis cysts (ovarian tissue was present in 14 of 26 specimens [54%] vs. 1 of 16 specimens [6%]; P<.005). No specimen showed the normal follicular pattern observed in healthy ovaries.

Conclusion(s): The stripping technique appears to be a tissue-sparing procedure. In 36% of the cysts, ovarian tissue is excised together with the cyst wall, but this tissue does not show the morphologic characteristics observed in normal ovarian tissue.