Recurrent endometriosis: incidence, management, and prognosis.

The rate of recurrence of endometriosis after treatment has varied from 2% to 47% in published reports. In order to determine whether a meaningful prognosis for recurrence can be rendered, 423 patients treated with conservative surgical procedures from 1967 to 1982 were followed as outpatients. From among these, 62 patients underwent reoperation. Annual rates of recurrence based on findings at reoperation ranged from 0.9% in the first postoperative year to 13.6% in the eighth postoperative year. The cumulative 3- and 5-year recurrence rates were 13.5% and 40.3%, respectively. Severity of disease was not predictive of recurrence. Pregnancy did not preclude, but did delay, recurrence. Forty-seven percent of infertile patients with recurrent endometriosis conceived after a second conservative operation. Of 20 patients who had a second conservative operation for endometriosis, 20% required a third laparotomy. This is the first study of postoperative recurrent endometriosis to utilize a control group and the first to report annual rates of recurrence and reoperation.