Minilaparotomy vs laparoscopic hysterectomy for benign gynaecological diseases

Hysterectomy is the most frequent gynaecological procedure carried out with either conventional (abdominal) or minimally invasive surgery (MIS). Despite the advantage of MIS compared with the conventional procedure, it requires extensive training and a long learning curve. Minilaparotomy hysterectomy is an alternative approach that needs no sophisticated and expensive equipment or training. The objective of this study was to compare the perioperative outcomes between minilaparotomy hysterectomy (MH) and laparoscopic hysterectomy (LH) in patients with benign gynaecological diseases. A significantly shorter operative time was obtained in MH. There was no significant difference in blood loss and perioperative complications. However, a higher intraoperative complication (two bladder injuries and one major blood loss) were observed in the LH. Early postoperative VAS pain scores and recovery time were insignificantly different between both groups. Overall patient satisfaction levels and satisfaction scores were found to be similar in both groups, without significant difference.