Laparoscopic management of ovarian endometriomas: a critical review of current practice

Endometriomas are a common cause of gynaecological morbidity, but their aetiology and management remain controversial This review focuses on identifying the evidence from published literature for the laparoscopic management of ovarian endometriomas. A critical appraisal shows that laparoscopic surgery is equivalent to laparotomy. There is no evidence to suggest that one minimal access surgical technique is clearly superior to another, However, this may be related to the inconsistencies in study design. In view of this we describe and justify our own management strategy for dealing with endometriomas. (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.