Evaluation of the surgical outcome and complications of total laparoscopic hysterectomy in patients with enlarged uteruses

Association of maximum uterine diameter with postoperative complications in laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy: A retrospective cohort study

OBJECTIVE

To determine the maximum uterine diameter threshold associated with an elevated risk of complications following laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy (LSH).

METHODS

This was a retrospective cohort study from a single tertiary referral center. We enrolled patients who underwent LSH for benign indications at our hospital between January 2013 and June 2023. The primary outcome was the occurrence of surgical complications within the 30-day timeframe of hysterectomy. The covariate included the year of the procedure, patient age, body mass index, parity, American Society of Anesthesiologists classification, comorbidities, history of previous abdominal and pelvic surgery, and preoperative anemia, blood loss, surgical time, hospital stay and pathology. The exclusion criteria comprised those who underwent hysterectomy for malignancy, individuals who underwent total vaginal hysterectomy or laparoscopically assisted vaginal hysterectomy, and those with missing data on uterine maximum diameter, study outcomes, or covariates.

RESULTS

We included a final sample of 120 patients, revealing a median uterine diameter of 9.12 cm, with 9.2% experiencing complications. The median uterine weight among 40 patients was 275 g. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis suggested a potential cutoff of 11.55 cm for predicting complications, with an area under the ROC curve of 0.67. Multivariate logistic regression confirmed a significant association between uterine diameter exceeding the cutoff and increased complication risk (OR 33.925, 95% CI: 2.294-501.690, P = 0.0103). A correlation (r = 0.762, P < 0.001) between uterine weight and diameter indicated the latter's suitability for preoperative assessment of uterine weight.

CONCLUSION

The maximum uterine diameter with an optimal cutoff of 11.55 cm was associated with increased complication risk.

Evaluation of complications, conversion rate, malignancy rate, and, surgeon's experience in laparoscopic assisted supracervical hysterectomy (LASH) of 1274 large uteri: A retrospective study

INTRODUCTION

Hysterectomy now belongs to standard gynecological procedures. Moreover, a shift towards laparoscopic techniques is ever more apparent as they provide many advantages such as less traumatization and shorter convalescence. Large uteri are still mentioned as contraindications for laparoscopic hysterectomy even though those patients might benefit from the lower morbidity associated with minimal invasive techniques. In this study, the largest reported so far, we analyzed intraoperative and postoperative complications as well as the surgeon's experience of laparoscopic assisted supracervical hysterectomy (LASH) in patients with a uterus weight over 500 g.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The present retrospective study, between June 27, 1998 and August 31, 2019, evaluates 1274 patients with a uterus weight over 500 g who were treated with LASH for benign uterine diseases at the Clinic for Minimal Invasive Surgery (Berlin, Germany). All surgeries were performed by one of four in-house surgeons with experience in LASH: they had performed at least 500 LASH procedures before the study. Patients receiving surgical treatment for malignant tumors were not included in the study. Major and minor intraoperative and postoperative complications were recorded and evaluated. Additionally, medical files were evaluated for demographic data, American Society of Anesthesiologists score (I-IV), name of the surgeon, duration and indication for surgery, history of previous gynecological procedures and concomitant surgical interventions, weight of removed uterine tissue, duration of postoperative hospitalization in patients with complications, intraoperative conversion from laparoscopy to laparotomy, and malignancy rate.

RESULTS

The mean age was 47.0 ± 7.3 years and mean body mass index was 25.6 ± 7.1 kg/m² . Average parity was 1.04 ± 1.57. Average uterus weight was 761.8 ± 317.9 g (500-4065 g). The mean duration of surgery was 96.9 ± 49.5 min; 54% of all patients were treated without concomitant intervention, conversion rate was 2.12%. The malignancy rate was 0.4% and the complication rate was 6.81% with 1.36% intraoperative complications and 5.45% postoperative complications.

CONCLUSIONS

The overall low complication and malignancy rates observed in this study allow us to present LASH as a safe and efficient alternative laparoscopic approach to remove uteri of any size in the hands of experienced surgeons.

Does uterus volume affect the total laparoscopic hysterectomy outcomes?

Background/Aim: Increased uterus weight, high body mass index (BMI), and history of abdominal surgeries increase the risk of complications in total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH), similar to other types of surgery. However, there are conflicting reports about improving technology. This study aimed to retrospectively investigate the clinical features and postoperative results of TLH cases regarding uterine volume performed for benign reasons in our clinic. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, 252 patients were included. The demographic data of all patients, including BMI, pre-operative uterine volumes, operation times, number of cesarean sections, history of lower abdominal operation, indications, pre-operative and postoperative hemoglobin differences, complications, length of hospital stay, and final pathologies were reviewed. The uterine volume was measured using the prolate ellipsoid formula before surgery, using the maximum length and anteroposterior and transverse diameters of the uterine corpus. The normal uterine volume with these measurements (8 cm long, 4 cm high, and 5 cm wide) was estimated as 83.2 cm3. The patients were classified into two groups according to uterine volume (normal volume ≤ 83.2 or above). Surgical outcomes of patients were compared between groups. Results: Two-hundred-fifty-two women were included in the study. The mean uterine volumes of groups 1 and 2 were 53.66 cm3 (2.25) and 296.33 cm3 (6.25), respectively. In group 1, the mean operation time was 111.14 (6) min, compared to 118.2 (3.06) min in group 2; there was no significant difference (P = 0.164). The mean postoperative hospital stays of groups 1 and 2 were 3.21 (0.15) and 3.34 (0.09) days, respectively, and there was no significant difference (P = 0.706). The mean blood loss values of groups 1 and 2 were 1.34 g/dl (0.19) and 1.16 g/dl 0.06), respectively. Conclusion: According to our results, TLH is a safe method even in patients with a larger uterus; operating time, blood loss, and postoperative hospital stays did not differ according to uterine volume.

Effect of intravenous ascorbic acid administration on hemorrhage and wound complications in total abdominal hysterectomy: A prospective randomized clinical trial

OBJECTIVE

Previous studies mentioned the beneficial effects of vitamin C on the hemorrhage and wound healing. We evaluated the effects of vitamin C on the hemorrhage, hemoglobin concentration, and wound complications in total abdominal hysterectomy.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 80 patients with total abdominal hysterectomy were randomly divided into the study and control groups to receive either intravenous 2 g of vitamin C in normal saline or solely normal saline therapy. The first 1-g dose of ascorbic acid was administrated the night before surgery, and the second 1 g was administrated during surgery.

RESULTS

The mean age of the participants was 37.8 ± 4.8 years with a mean preoperative plasma vitamin C concentration of 5.07 ± 2.1 mg/dL, close to the subclinical deficiency. The basal characteristics of both groups were the same. The hemorrhage volume was slightly higher in the control group (345.2 ± 31.8 ml vs. 388.1 ± 28.3 ml, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Intravenous vitamin C administration had a positive effect on reducing hemorrhage during total abdominal hysterectomy.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Clinicaltrials.gov.identifier: NCT03965637.

Learning Curve Analysis of Single-Site Robot-Assisted Hysterectomy

We aim to analyze the surgical outcomes and learning curve of single-site robot-assisted hysterectomy. This was a retrospective cohort study from a single academic medical center. A total of 123 patients who underwent single-site robotic surgery for gynecologic disease were enrolled. Gynecologic surgeries were performed by a single surgeon using single-site robot-assisted hysterectomy. The median age of enrolled patients was 49 years (range: 30–74 years). The median operation time was 131 min (range: 59–502 min) and the median docking time was 3 min (range: 1–10 min). In addition, the median console time was 76 min (range: 29–465 min). The cumulative sum (CUSUM) graph for total operation time indicated an initial decrease at case 41, generating 3 distinct performance phases: learning (n = 41 initial cases), competence (n = 54 middle cases), and mastery (n = 28 final cases). There was one case conversion to open surgery due to the difficulty in securing the field of view because of a 16-cm bulky mass protruding from the left pelvic wall. No patients required a transfusion and two complications including vaginal cuff dehiscence were identified. The single-site robot-assisted hysterectomy is a safe and feasible procedure. The learning curve consisted of 41 cases to significantly decrease the total operation time.

Single-Centre Experience of Doing Safe Total Laparoscopic Hysterectomy: Retrospective Analysis of 1200 Cases

Study Objective

Assessment of safety and feasibility of total laparoscopic hysterectomy in a high-volume tertiary care centre.

Design

Retrospective study design.

Setting

Tertiary care centre: Galaxy care Hospital, Pune, India.

Materials and Methods

This is a retrospective observational study conducted in a tertiary care resident training hospital in Pune which is a high-volume teaching hospital. 1200 total laparoscopic hysterectomy patients between July 2013 and June 2019 operated by a group of trained surgeons were analysed, and parameters, namely demography, indication of surgery, surgical time, intra-operative blood loss, post-operative complications, duration of hospital stay, discharge and follow-up, were studied.

Results

A total of 1200 women who underwent total laparoscopic hysterectomy for various indications were included in the study. TLH was successfully performed in all women. Mean age of women was 45 years. 72.00% had a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9, 16.08% had a BMI between 25 and 29.9, 3.92% had a BMI of > 29.9 while 8% had a BMI < 18.5. Indications for surgery included uterine fibroid (33.08%), adenomyosis (22.25%), endometrial hyperplasia (14.33%), endometrial polyp (7%), endometriosis (3.33%), postmenopausal bleeding (9.25%), chronic PID (5.25%), prolapse (4.25%) and risk reduction surgery in 1.25%. 2.00% had intra-operative complications while 7.58% had post-operative complications which were identified and managed successfully.

Conclusions

Advances and innovation in equipment, energy sources and surgical training have made TLH a well-tolerated and efficient surgery. Irrespective of the previous morbidity, pathology and uterine size, TLH is a duplicable and safe in a well-trained high-volume centre.

Bilateral uterine artery coagulation in laparoscopic hysterectomy for benign disease in uteri more than 1000 g

AIM

We aimed to evaluate the efficacy of bipolar uterine artery coagulation in laparoscopic hysterectomy for uteri larger than 1000 g.

METHODS

Data from 674 patients who underwent laparoscopic hysterectomy were retrospectively analyzed. Among those, 75 patients with uteri weighing more than 1000 g were included. The clinical and surgical outcomes of patients with large uteri were compared according to bipolar uterine artery coagulation performance status.

RESULTS

The mean difference in intraoperative blood loss between the groups of patients with uterine artery occlusion and without uterine artery occlusion was statistically significant (89.26 ± 65.52 vs 227.94 ± 124.65 mL; P < 0.001). The hemoglobin decrease was also significantly lower in the patients with uterine artery occlusion (0.46 ± 0.23 vs 1.21 ± 0.79 g/dL; P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

When performing laparoscopic hysterectomy of uteri weighing over 1000 g, the occlusion of the bilateral uterine arteries at the point of exit from the internal iliac arteries using bipolar coagulation at the beginning of the operation reduces intraoperative hemorrhage and hemoglobin decrease.

Anatomical complications of hysterectomy: A review

Hysterectomy is the most commonly performed gynecological procedure in the United States with three possible surgical approaches; vaginal, abdominal and laparoscopic. As with any surgical procedure, various anatomical complications can arise. These include injuries to anatomical structures such as the urinary bladder, ureter, intestines, rectum, anus, and a multitude of nervous structures. Other complications include sexual dysfunction, vaginal cuff dehiscence, and urinary incontinence. Using standard search engines, the anatomical complications of hysterectomies are reviewed. In conclusion, surgeons who perform hysterectomies or are involved with postoperative hysterectomy patients should be familiar with the possible complications of this common procedure and the steps that can be taken to help reduce the risk of those complications. Clinicians should also inform their patients of the potential complications as they can affect lifestyle and comfort. Clin. Anat. 30:946-952, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.