ENDOMETRIOSIS:  A STUDY OF ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN CASES WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO CONSTRICTING LESIONS OF THE RECTUM AND SIGMOID COLON

Medical literature of the past two decades is replete with studies of most of the fundamental characteristics of endometriosis. The importance of this disease as a cause of constricting lesions of the rectum and sigmoid colon, however, has not been sufficiently stressed, nor is adequate roentgenologic information available. Correct preoperative diagnoses of this condition cannot be minimized. Constricting endometrial lesions of the rectum and sigmoid colon often are confused with carcinoma, and patients sometimes are subjected to radical resection of the bowel,¹ whereas castration usually will suffice. Many constricting endometrial lesions of the rectum and sigmoid often may be regarded as some other inflammatory or infectious condition and receive medical management with little or no improvement.

PATHOLOGIC CHARACTERISTICS  The term "endometriosis" in this discussion designates islands of ectopic adenomatous tissue with histologic and functional characteristics similar to that of normal endometrium and located in the female pelvis outside the