Urinary Tract Endometriosis

Abstract

Urinary endometriosis is a rare diagnosis which is becoming much more common at referral centres. The bladder and the pelvic ureter are the sites that can be affected, each posing to the urologist and gynecologist some specific diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties. Bladder endometriosis, indeed, usually causes lower urinary tract symptoms, has a typical appearance at imaging and can be an isolated presentation; ureteral location, at the contrary, often presents with a vague or aspecific symptomatology and is often associated to other pelvic locations, so that a careful evaluation of the urinary tract, preferably with NMR, is mandatory for severe pelvic endometriosis, also in the absence of symptoms. The treatment of bladder presentation is partial cystectomy, preferably via a laparoscopic approach, while ureteral endometriosis can require different surgical solutions, from ureterolysis to ureteral reimplantation, open, laparoscopic or robot-assisted, basing on its extent and on the need of additional procedures for other locations.