[Endometriosis: good practice rules for diagnostic laparoscopy]

Abstract

The interest for diagnostic laparoscopy for the diagnosis of endometriosis is not longer discussed. Indications could be pelvic pain, infertility, menorragia, and/or organic ovarian tumour. Several lesions, typical and non typical, have been described and should be recognized. Histological confirmation seems suitable even though the correlation with visual inspection is not perfect. New laparoscopic techniques seem interesting to increase diagnostic relevance. Visual inspection should be associated with palpation. For deep infiltrating endometriotic lesions diagnostic laparoscopy has shown its limits. Precisions concerning peri-operative methods and operative reports are described. The place of the different classifications has been discussed.