Statement on Ethics
This study did not involve any departure from routine clinical practice
or divisions/randomisation of patients into groups. It was retrospective
in nature, using pre-existing audits of national database data from the
British Society for Gynaecological Endoscopy (BSGE). Full anonymity of
patients was ensured through lack of any patient-specific data used,
only the number of operations were known for each endometriosis centre
per year. For these reasons prior approval from a research ethics
committee was not required. The audits were registered annually and
performed by the BSGE, and are publicly available on their website.
Approval was gained from the BSGE for the study.