In this section
@article{Bennet:2026,
author = {Bennet, S and Nagenthiran, S and Bainton, T and Ahmed, J and Male, V and Johnson, M},
journal = {BMC Women's Health},
title = {Ethanol sclerotherapy versus cystectomy in the management of endometriomata: a systematic review and meta-analysis},
year = {2026}
}
TY - JOUR
AB - BackgroundThe management of endometriomata remains a challenge, with current options associated with either high recurrence rates or significant reduction in ovarian reserve. Ethanol sclerotherapy has been suggested as a treatment that is effective while maintaining ovarian reserve. MethodsPubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, SCOPUS and CENTRAL were searched with no restriction on date or language. Keywords and MESH terms for ‘endometrioma’ AND ‘ethanol sclerotherapy’ AND ‘cystectomy’ were used. Studies were included if they made a direct comparison between ethanol sclerotherapy and cystectomy in the management of endometriomata in women of reproductive age. Randomised controlled trials (RCTs), cohort or case control studies were included. Searches were performed 11th February 2025 and repeated 21st August 2025. Risk of bias was assessed using ROB2 for RCTs and ROBINS-I for observational studiesResultsSearches identified 172 studies with 16 of these fitting the inclusion criteria. Unfortunately, a formal analysis of between group change in Anti-Mullerian hormone (AMH) was not possible due to insufficient reporting of change score variance data, as such an exploratory between group pre- and post- analysis was performed instead. This found no significant difference in AMH at baseline (mean difference (MD) 0.02, 95% CI –0.20 to 0.25, p=0.830) while post procedure AMH was significantly higher in the sclerotherapy arm (MD 0.75, 95% CI 0.43 to 1.06, p<0.001). Overall risk of bias was high; however, similar results were seen following a sensitivity analysis excluding studies at highest risk of bias (high for ROB2 and critical for ROBINS-I) (MD -0.25, 95% CI -0.57 to 0.08, p=0.136 and MD 0.60, 95% CI 0.22 to 0.97, p=0.002, respectively). Studies reporting on Antral Follicle Count (AFC) gave conflicting results and all were assessed as at high or critical risk of bias. No significant difference was seen in recurrence (LogOR 0.28, 95% CI &nd
AU - Bennet,S
AU - Nagenthiran,S
AU - Bainton,T
AU - Ahmed,J
AU - Male,V
AU - Johnson,M
PY - 2026///
SN - 1472-6874
TI - Ethanol sclerotherapy versus cystectomy in the management of endometriomata: a systematic review and meta-analysis
T2 - BMC Women's Health
ER -