Pelvic Endometriosis Diagnosed in an Entire Nation Over 20 Years

摘要

The annual incidence of pelvic endometriosis among women aged 15–49 years and up to age 69 years wasnascertained for the Icelandic population between 1981 and 2000 by using Iceland’s extensive record linkagensystems. Comprehensive, state-financed health care and unique personal identification numbers enabled carento be tracked from first diagnosis. To identify cases, a centralized discharge-code registry was searched, as well asnall hospital databases and, for individual patients, all hospital records. Each case of visually diagnosed andnhistologically verified endometriosis was cross-checked against the nationwide pathology registry. The revisednAmerican Society for Reproductive Medicine classification system was used for staging. Recorded was type ofnoperation at diagnosis and presence of disease at 5 sites: deep pelvis, appendages, central pelvis, vesicouterinenpouch, and ovaries. A total of 1,383 women were diagnosed surgically, with histologic verification of 811 (58.6%).nAll but 6 cases could be staged; 297 (36.9%) had minimal/mild and 508 (63.1%) had moderate/severe disease.nThe estimates of crude annual incidence were 0.1% for visually confirmed and 0.06% for histologically verifiednendometriosis, and respective age-standardized annual incidence was 0.1% and 0.05% for women agedn15–49 years. The most common site was the ovary, followed by deep pelvis, central pelvis, appendages, andnvesicouterine pouch.