Laparotomy conversion rate of laparoscopic radical hysterectomy for early-stage cervical cancer in a consecutive...

To estimate the feasibility and conversion rate of laparoscopic radical hysterectomy (LRH) in early-stage cervical cancer.

Data were collected from the medical records of 260 consecutive patients with stage IA2 to IIA2 cervical cancer who had undergone LRH, regardless of age, body mass index, prior abdominal surgery, uterus size, or tumor size.

The median patient age was 48 years (range, 26-78 years), 11.9 % of whom were elderly (≥65 years), 11.2 % were obese (≥30 kg/m(2)), 15.4 % had undergone previous abdominal surgery, and 13.1 % had a tumor larger than 4 cm. Negative-margin resection was feasible in all patients except one. The median operative time and estimated blood loss were 253 min (range, 111-438 min) and 300 mL (range, 80-2000 mL), respectively. Intraoperative and postoperative complications occurred in seven (2.7 %) and 10 patients (3.8 %), respectively. Four patients (1.5 %) required intraoperative conversion to laparotomy, three of which were due to conglomerated metastatic lymph nodes surrounding the aorta (n = 2), the left external iliac vein (n = 1) or the left ureter (n = 1). LRH was still completed in the four conversion patients, and a laparotomy was required for the removal of the conglomerated metastatic lymph nodes and the repair of the injured vessels.

The conversion rate to laparotomy among patients undergoing LRH for early-stage cervical cancer was 1.5 % when performed exclusively in consecutive patients. LRH showed comparable feasibility and effectiveness to open radical hysterectomy in the treatment of early-stage cervical cancer.