Intrinsic ureteric obstruction secondary to endometriosis: a rare clinical entity causing obstructive uropathy and renal failure.

Ureteral endometriosis is rare and can be a silent clinical entity, which can potentially lead to serious complications such as obstructive uropathy, sepsis and renal failure. A high clinical suspicion is required especially in childbearing age groups due to non-specific presentation such as renal colic, recurrent urinary tract infection (UTI), renal failure or asymptomatic hydronephrosis.A woman in her 40s presented with febrile UTI and flank pain. She reportedly suffered from recurrent UTIs in the past. Initial workup revealed an infected, obstructed left renal collecting system with gross hydronephrosis and hydroureter to the distal ureter on a significant gynaecological background of severe endometriosis requiring hysterectomy in the past.CT showed chronic obstructive changes and soft tissue nodules within the renal pelvis with no radio-opaque stones. She underwent emergent ureteric stent insertion. Functional imaging demonstrated only 1% contribution of the left kidney with a preserved estimated glomerular filtration rate of 65 mL/min/1.73 m2Endoscopic evaluation of ureters found extensive soft tissue lesions throughout the dilated left collecting system with biopsy-confirmed endometriosis. Subsequently, she underwent laparoscopic nephroureterectomy due to extensive ureteric involvement and chronically obstructed non-functioning kidney. Histopathology demonstrated completely obstructing ureteral endometriosis.Ureteric obstruction secondary to endometriosis can be due to extrinsic or intrinsic disease. In addition to initial assessment with CT urogram MRI may be helpful to evaluate soft tissue thickening. Endoscopic assessment with ureteroscopy and biopsy is required for tissue diagnosis. Surgery is often the treatment of choice, ranging from ureteroureterostomy, ureteroneocystostomy or nephroureterectomy in severe cases.Ureteral endometriosis is a rare clinical entity, clinicians should remain vigilant about common presentations of this rare entity, early diagnosis and prompt treatment is crucial to prevent progression to renal failure.

Preoperative diagnosis of ureteral medial deviations secondary to deep endometriosis using transvaginal ultrasound examinations: Can we predict the need for ureterolysis during laparoscopic surgery?

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate ureteral involvement using transvaginal sonography (TVS) regarding the distortion of the course of the ureters caused by deep endometriosis (DE), which can facilitate predicting the need for ureterolysis during surgery, even in the absence of ureteral stenosis or dilatation. METHODS: This is a single-center, observational, retrospective pilot study of 88 consecutive patients who later underwent surgery for DE that used ultrasound preoperative diagnosis of ureteral medial deviation of one or both ureters between January 2019 and January 2022. At TVS, the course of the ureter was considered medialized if, in longitudinal and transversal section, any distance was detectable between the ureter and the cervix at the point where the ureter crosses the uterine artery. The primary end point was to determine sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of "ureteral medial deviation" diagnosed using TVS, in order to predict the need for ureterolysis. RESULTS: Our series included 88 women with a median age of 39 (interquartile range 33-43) years. Ureteral medialization showed a relatively low false-positive rate (10.9%), with a specificity of 89.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] 81.4%-96.7%) and a sensitivity of 86.6% (95% CI 80.3%-92.9%), along with a high positive predictive value of 93.3% (95% CI 88.4%-98.1%), and a lower negative predictive value of 79.1% (95% CI 69.8%-88.5%), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study introduced a new ultrasound sign with a high degree of accuracy to predict ureterolysis and this may have positive implications in the management and surgical planning of patients with ureteral endometriosis.