Endometriosis of the intestines: A report of seven cases

Summary and Conclusions In a series of 720 cases of histologically verified endometriosis filed at this hospital in a 20-year period, seven cases of intestinal endometriosis were found: four in appendiceal locations, one in the terminal ileum, one in the rectovaginal septum, and one in the cecum. Two of these patients had concurrent involvement of the uterus and adnexa, and in the remaining patients the lesions were limited to the intestines. No patient had clinical signs and symptoms of endometriosis, and even diagnosis was established by pathologic examination of the lesion. In two of the cases included in this series, the patients were post menopausal; these cases illustrate the point that aberrant endometrial tissue may become activated after the menopause. Embryology gives support to the view that peritoneum, germinal epithelium and uterine epithelium are all derivatives of coelomic epithelium. In all our cases the endometrial implants were subserosal. This presupposes the persistence in the subcoelomic mesenchyma of undifferentiated stem cells capable of differentiating into endometrial tissue.