[Significance of laparoscopy in gynaecological oncology]

By now laparoscopy has become an established access route in gynaecological surgery. It took many years to get to this stage for various obstacles had to be overcome. In the end, it was the low intra- and postoperative complication rates together with the rapid reconvalescence of the patients and their wish to be quickly discharged from hospital which led to an unstoppable diffusion of the method. With the increased use of the procedure and the expertise of the surgeons, it entered the field of gynaecological oncology and met similar reservations. Once again the same convincing advantages helped overcome the resistance. Thus, laparoscopic surgical procedures have secured a place in the treatment of corpus and cervical carcinomas, as their surgical safety has been proved. The aim of future examinations should be the proof of non-inferiority compared to the open techniques because the advantages of the laparoscopic procedure have been sufficiently proved. Regardless of the required proof, the method is rapidly expanding with robot-assisted procedures, while surgeons develop exenterative techniques.