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Classification of Endometriosis

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Endometriosis

Abstract

As endometriosis is a chronic disease which debilitates women of reproductive age and has a negative impact on work force and quality of life in general, a disease classification would help to estimate the extent of impact on various aspects.

The most common classification has been established by the American Fertility Society and finally revised as American Society of Reproductive Medicine Classification. It is based on a laparoscopic evaluation and scoring and stages from I to IV can be applied, reflecting the extent of disease.

Since this rASRM classification does not clearly reflect a prognosis for infertility patients, the endometriosis fertility index (EFI) was developed, which is eased on the rASRM classification, but in addition includes predicted ovarian and tubal function and historical parameters.

Since these two scoring algorithms do not consider deep infiltrating endometriosis, a classification, the Enzian classification was developed according to the TNM classification for cancer. It describes the extent of disease within three different pelvic compartments classified into three sizes.

The development of MRI led to an accurate preoperative mapping of respective endometriotic lesions and enabled an MRI-based radiological classification system (MARIE) that reflects both the localisation of endometriosis and concomitant reproductive function.

Up to date no classification exists that concludes all aspects of the disease, the pathophysiology, localisation, progression, pain and infertility, treatment, prognosis and recurrence.

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Correspondence to Hans-Rudolf Tinneberg .

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Tinneberg, HR. et al. (2014). Classification of Endometriosis. In: Harada, T. (eds) Endometriosis. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54421-0_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-54421-0_21

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