Endometriosis in the Urinary Bladder

Did you know? Endometriosis may involve the urinary bladder.

Key Points

Highlights:

• The symptoms of patients with bladder endometriosis include urinary urgency, urinary frequency, dysuria, or cyclical gross hematuria.
• Notably, some patients may not experience any symptoms.

What's done here:

• The authors described a rare case of bladder endometriosis along with radiological and cystoscopic findings in a 38-year-old female.

Key Results:

• The patient had a 6-month history of intermittent gross hematuria, pain with urination, and pelvic pain.
• She also had a past medical history of cesarean section and total abdominal hysterectomy for uterine myoma and adenomyosis.
• On both ultrasonography and computed tomography, a hypervascular mass measuring about 5cm was seen over the bladder dome.
• Cystoscopic biopsy taken from edematous submucosal multiloculated lesions in the bladder was nondiagnostic.
• Partial cystectomy was performed and histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of endometriosis.
• At 1-year follow-up, the patient showed no recurrence.

Lay Summary

A case of bladder endometriosis is reported by Geng JH, from Taiwan, and the paper has been recently published in The New England Journal Of Medicine.

The patient was a 38-year-old woman presented to the outpatient urology clinic with complaints of intermittent gross hematuria, pain with urination, and pelvic pain for 6 months. She delivered by cesarean section six years earlier and had a total abdominal hysterectomy for uterine myoma and adenomyosis 1 year earlier.

A hypervascular mass measuring 5.3x4.3x4.3 cm over the bladder dome was detected by both ultrasonography and computed tomography. Bladder biopsy obtained from edematous submucosal multiloculated lesions during cystoscopy was nondiagnostic. The patient underwent partial cystectomy and endometriosis was diagnosed by histopathological examination. No recurrence was seen during the first-year follow-up.

The author stated that "Patients with bladder endometriosis may experience symptoms including urinary urgency, urinary frequency, dysuria, or cyclical gross hematuria. However, some patients may be asymptomatic".

Research Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31881141/