Background: Postoperative recurrence remains a problem for endometriosis. The
study aimed to study whether baseline serum vascular endothelial growth factor
(VEGF) levels can predict postoperative endometriosis recurrence. Methods: We
included 147 patients with ovarian endometriosis who received laparoscopic
endometrioma excision and postoperative gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist
treatment with hormonal add-back therapy between 2017 and 2019 in a tertiary
hospital. According to endometriosis recurrence within 2 years, the patients were
divided into two groups and baseline serum VEGF level measured before the surgery
were compared. Logistic regression was used to examine the association between
baseline serum VEGF level and endometriosis recurrence, and the area under the
receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was calculated to examine its
predictive performance. Results: The mean age of the patients was 30.1
6.0 years with a duration of dysmenorrhea of 60.3 35.0 months before
surgery, and the majority (88.4%) were with revised American Fertility Society
(rAFS) stage III or IV. Eight (5.44%) patients had endometriosis recurrence
within 2 years. Compared with patients without recurrence, patients with
recurrence were significantly younger (25.9 4.3 vs. 30.3
6.0 years, p = 0.040) and had higher baseline serum VEGF levels (689.67
127.38 vs. 547.87 171.31 pg/mL, p = 0.023), but
there was no difference in other baseline characteristics. Serum VEGF levels were
significantly associated with endometriosis recurrence (odds ratio 1.008 per
pg/mL increase, 95% confidence interval 1.001–1.014) after adjusting for other
baseline characteristics. The AUC of serum VEGF levels for predicting
postoperative endometriosis recurrence was 0.741 (95% confidence interval
0.594–0.887). Conclusions: Baseline serum VEGF level is an independent risk
factor of postoperative endometriosis recurrence and might be useful for
predicting endometriosis recurrence.