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Symptoms of Bowel Endometriosis

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Clinical Management of Bowel Endometriosis

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Abstract

Patients affected by bowel endometriosis usually complain pain and intestinal symptoms including dyschezia, cyclic bowel alterations, abdominal cramping, feeling incomplete evacuation, stool fragmentation, passage of mucus with the stools and rectal bleeding. The characteristic and intensity of these symptoms depend on the location of the nodules, their size and the degree of stenosis of the intestinal lumen. However, the intestinal symptoms are not only the consequence of infiltration of endometriosis in the intestinal wall, but they are also caused by the cyclic micro-hemorrhages and inflammation within endometriotic lesions and by the distortion of the anatomy that may lead to abnormal angulations of the digestive tract. Significant narrowing of the intestinal lumen occurs in a minority of patients with bowel endometriosis and it may cause subocclusive or occlusive symptoms (such as abdominal distention, diffuse or moderate abdominal pain, vomiting, no gas or stool passing). The development of colonic ischemia in the upstream dilated bowel may cause perforation with subsequent peritonitis and sepsis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Academic Unit of Obstetrics and Gynecology, IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genova, Italy

    Simone Ferrero & Fabio Barra

  2. Department of Neurosciences, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health (DiNOGMI), University of Genova, Genova, Italy

    Simone Ferrero & Fabio Barra

  3. Academic Unit of Obstetrics and Gynecology, IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy

    Melita Moioli

  4. Piazza della Vittoria 14 S.r.l, Genoa, Italy

    Danilo Dodero

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  1. Simone Ferrero
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  2. Melita Moioli
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  3. Danilo Dodero
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  4. Fabio Barra
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Correspondence to Simone Ferrero .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Department of Neurosciences, Rehabilitation, Ophthalmology, Genetics, Maternal and Child Health (DiNOGMI), University of Genova, Genova, Italy

    Simone Ferrero

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Gynecologic Oncology and Minimally-Invasive Pelvic Surgery, International School of Surgical Anatomy, IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria Hospital, Negrar di Valpolicella, Verona, Italy

    Marcello Ceccaroni

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Ferrero, S., Moioli, M., Dodero, D., Barra, F. (2020). Symptoms of Bowel Endometriosis. In: Ferrero, S., Ceccaroni, M. (eds) Clinical Management of Bowel Endometriosis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50446-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50446-5_4

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