Surgical management of deep pelvic endometriosis in France: Do we need to be a pelvic surgeon to deal with DPE?

Abstract

Introduction: Endometriosis is a common disease in women, which requires a medical and surgical approach. Surgical societies recommend a multidisciplinary management in tertiary referral centers. The objective of our study is to assess the surgical management of endometriosis in France by studying the surgeons' attitude for bowel and urinary endometriosis.

Methods: We sent a survey to french endometriosis surgeons. We did a descriptive analysis and a comparative analysis between surgeons who believe endometriosis surgeons should be considered as "pelvic surgeons", able to treat bowel and urinary involvement.

Results: We included 90 answers, from gynaecologic surgeons from all over France. Gynaecologic surgeons perform minor bowel and urinary tract surgery, and more complex procedures are performed with digestive or urological surgeon (bowel resection 85% of cases, ureteric resection-anastomosis 84% of cases, ureteric reimplantation 91% of cases). Surgeons considering that gynaecologists should be able to deal with urinary and bowel endometriosis carry out more bowel and urinary procedures. They have an additional training in surgery and perform more endometriosis surgery every year. However, bowel and urinary endometriosis management by gynaecologic surgeons is contested amongst gynaecologists.

Conclusion: To this day, there is no dedicated training in France to coach gynaecologist to perform such procedures. Multidisciplinary approach is essential for quality care, in expert centers. The basic education of gynaecologic surgeons does not allow them to perform complex pelvic surgeries, but qualifications can be gained for these interventions with a special training, and perform a greater number of surgeries.

Keywords: Bowel endometriosis; Deep pelvic endometriosis; Laparoscopy; Surgical management; Surgical training; Urinary tract endometriosis.