Sclerotherapy - an adjuvant therapy to endometriosis

Objective: Recurrent endometriomas after medical or surgical treatment is a difficult clinical problem for those patients who wish to perform ovulation induction. Therefore we tried to investigate the efficacy of sclerotherapy as an adjuvant management before ovulation induction to preserve more ovarian tissue for folliculogenesis in ART program. Methods: Thirty-two patients with persistent or recurrent endometrioma after surgical or medical treatment were included in this study. Transvaginal ultrasound needle guided aspiration of the cyst followed by tetracycline instillation was performed before ovulation induction. Results: There is an encouraging clinical pregnancy rate of 34.37%. Also, there is a disappointing recurrent rate of 46.87% in 12 months follow-up course. Conclusion: The increased interest in cost-effective outpatient therapy and the expected difficulty in surgical treatment of recurrent endometriomas made aspiration and sclerotherapy of endometrioma an attractive option before ovulation induction. (C) 1997 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics.