**1. Introduction**

84 Endometriosis - Basic Concepts and Current Research Trends

Yantiss RK, Clement PB, Young RH. (2001). Endometriosis of the intestinal tract: a study of

Yap C, Furness S, Farquar C. (2004). Pre and postoperative medical therapy for

Zeppa P, Vetrani A, Cozzolino I, Palombini L. (2004). Endometrial glands in ascites

Zullo F, Palomba S, Zupi E, Russo T, Morelli M, Sena T, Pellicano M, Mastrantonio P. (2004).

dysmenorrhea due to endometriosis. *J Am Assoc Gynecol Laparosc*; 11: 23-28.

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secondary to endometriosis. *Diagn Cytopathol*; 30: 131-132.

evaluation. *Am J Surg Pathol*; 25: 445-454.

44 cases of a disease that may cause diverse challenges in clinical and pathologic

Long-term effectiveness of presacral neurectomy for the treatment of severe

Endometriosis is defined as the presence of endometrial glands and stroma in another places of the female body than the uterine cavity. Despite of being a relatively common disease it still remains a diagnostic and therapeutic enigma, mainly thanks to its variable presentations. When endometriosis is localized intraperitoneally, the major problem in young women is involuntary sterility, whereas by extraperitoneal localization they suffer predominantly of bothersome pain.

In 1903 Robert Mayer was the first, who described the presence of endometriosis in the postoperative scar, as mentioned in Bytom study (43), and from this time the number of publications in this field is slowly rising, but still a lot of problems ought to be satisfactory elucidated. An investigation of this disease and making firm conclusions is not easy because of inconsistent and small series of patients, often casuistic (2, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 16, 19, 22, 30, 36, 39, 42, 46, 48, 52). Up to now only one large systemic review (29) was published and two biggest single retrospective studies (57, 41) included 81 and 72 patients appropriately.
