Anatomopathological lesions of bladder endometriosis are heterogeneous.

Résumé vulgarisé

OBJECTIVE: To present the anatomopathological characteristics of deep bladder endometriosis. DESIGN: Descriptive anatomapathological study. SETTING: A university hospital department of gynecological surgery. PATIENT(S): Eleven consecutive patients complaining of pelvic pain and painful urinary functional symptoms. INTERVENTION(S): Laparoscopic partial cystectomy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of deep bladder endometriosis lesions. RESULT(S): Deep bladder endometriosis lesions were extremely heterogeneous, not only in any one patient but also from one patient to another. Bladder muscularis propria presented three aspects: [1] hyperplasia of the fibromuscular tissue (4/11); [2] simple dissociation of the smooth muscle fiber bundles with no veritable -'disorganization-' (4/11); [3] simple thickening of the interstitial collagen network, or sclerosis (3/11). A histological adenomyotic nodule aspect was only observed in one patient (9%). CONCLUSION(S): Bladder endometriosis is an enigmatic disease. No hypothesis can be proposed as a single explanation for its pathogenesis.