Both conservative surgery with disk resection, and nerve- and vessel-sparing segmental resection reduce pain symptoms with equal morbidity. Fertility is improved with surgery with both techniques.

Endometriosis is a chronic systemic disease that can cause pain, infertility and reduced quality of life. Diagnosing endometriosis remains challenging, which yields diagnostic delays for patients. Research on diagnostic test accuracy in endometriosis can be difficult due to verification bias, as not all patients with endometriosis undergo definitive diagnostic testing. The purpose of this State-of-the-Art Review is to provide a comprehensive update on the strengths and limitations of the diagnostic modalities used in endometriosis and discuss the relevance of diagnostic test accuracy research pertaining to each. We performed a comprehensive literature review of the following methods: clinical assessment including history and physical examination, biomarkers, diagnostic imaging, surgical diagnosis and histopathology. Our review suggests that, although non-invasive diagnostic methods, such as clinical assessment, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging, do not yet qualify formally as replacement tests for surgery in diagnosing all subtypes of endometriosis, they are likely to be appropriate for advanced stages of endometriosis. We also demonstrate in our review that all methods have strengths and limitations, leading to our conclusion that there should not be a single gold-standard diagnostic method for endometriosis, but rather, multiple accepted diagnostic methods appropriate for different circumstances.

Operative hysteroscopy in a hospital setting has revolutionized surgical treatment of benign uterine disorders. It is minimally invasive, cost- and time-effective, and may spare patients major surgical interventions. Operative hysteroscopy in a day-case hospital setting is regarded as a safe and well-tolerated procedure with low complication rates. However, prevention of adverse events is crucial in daily practice to optimize patient care. Complications in operative hysteroscopy can be divided into early complications, including bleeding, uterine perforation, infection and fluid overload, or late complications and suboptimal outcomes, such as incomplete resection and intrauterine adhesions. Awareness and knowledge of management of adverse events as well as the use of possible preventative measures will increase the quality and safety of hysteroscopic surgery. The present commentary focuses on these issues as an up-to-date basis for everyday clinical practice.

Objectives First, to investigate the accuracy of transvaginal sonography (TVS) for presurgical evaluation of the distance between the most caudal part of the endometriotic lesion and the anal verge (lesion‐to‐anal‐verge distance (LAVD)) in women with rectosigmoid deep endometriosis (DE), compared with intraoperative measurement (IOM). Second, to assess the agreement between anastomosis height and LAVD measured using TVS. Methods This was a prospective observational multicenter study of symptomatic women who were scheduled for surgical treatment of rectosigmoid DE, by either discoid or segmental resection, between April 2017 and September 2019. Presurgical TVS was performed to evaluate the LAVD in two ways, depending on the level of the lesion. Method 1: for lesions at the level of the rectovaginal septum (RVS), the caudal part of the lesion was identified on TVS and an index finger was placed on the TVS probe at the level of the anal verge. The probe was withdrawn and the distance from the tip of the TVS probe down to the index finger was measured using a ruler, representing the LAVD. Method 2: for lesions above the RVS, the distance between the caudal part of the lesion and the lower lip of the posterior cervix was measured in a frozen image (LAVD‐1), and the distance between the lower lip of the posterior cervix and the anal verge (LAVD‐2) was measured using Method 1. These two measurements (LAVD‐1 and LAVD‐2) were added together and the result represented the total LAVD. During surgery, a rectal probe was used to perform IOM of LAVD, which was considered as the gold standard test. Agreement between LAVD measured using TVS and the IOM was assessed using Bland–Altman analysis. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for absolute agreement and Spearman's correlation coefficient were also calculated. Systematic and proportional bias were tested for significance using the paired t‐test. Similar analysis was performed to assess agreement between LAVD measured using TVS and anastomosis height. Results A total of 147 consecutive women were considered eligible for inclusion. Fourteen women were excluded initially. Thirty‐four discoid resections and 102 segmental resections were performed; both procedures were performed in three women. Two more women were excluded from the final analysis because the measurements represented extreme outliers. The mean LAVD measured using TVS was 114.8 ± 36.5 mm and the mean IOM was 116.9 ± 42.3 mm. There was no statistically significant difference between LAVD measured using TVS and IOM (mean difference, –2.12 mm (95% CI, –6.33 to 2.05 mm); P = 0.32). Bland–Altman analysis showed that there was good agreement between the two methods. The ICC was 0.81 (95% CI, 0.74–0.86) and Spearman's correlation coefficient was 0.68 (95% CI, 0.56–0.77). The mean difference between LAVD measured using TVS and anastomosis height was statistically, but not clinically, significant (mean difference, 10.25 mm (95% CI, 5.94–14.32 mm); P = 0.0005), and the ICC was 0.78 (95% CI, 0.66–0.85). Conclus...