Impact of Case Order on Laparoscopic Sacrocolpopexy: Do Surgeons Need a Warm-Up?

Warm-up is defined as a preparatory activity or procedure. Using case order as a surrogate for surgeon warm-up, first cases were compared with second or later cases for intraoperative complications, operative time, and length of stay (LOS) among women undergoing laparoscopic sacrocolpopexy.

This is a retrospective study of laparoscopic sacrocolpopexies performed from 2009 through 2014 at a large academic center. Any surgery preceding laparoscopic sacrocolpopexy was considered a surrogate for surgeon warm-up. Logistic and linear regression analyses were used to identify predictors of complications, operative time, and LOS.

Of 480 procedures, 192 (40%) were first cases and 288 (60%) were second or later. Baseline characteristics were similar between groups. Intraoperative complication rate was not different between groups (6.3% vs 3.1%, P = 0.50) even after controlling for risk factors. Operative times were comparable on initial analysis (231.2 ± 55.2 vs 225.9 ± 51.2 minutes, P = 0.28l), but a small difference was detected after adjusting for confounding factors (body mass index, menopausal status, surgeon experience, intraoperative complications, and concomitant hysterectomy or midurethral sling; adjusted β = 8.44 minutes, P = 0.037). Length of stay was longer for first case patients (1.44 ± 0.67 vs 1.24 ± 0.50 days, P < 0.001) even after adjusting for age, medical comorbidities, operative time, conversion to laparotomy, ileus/bowel obstruction, and postoperative urinary retention (adjusted β = 0.183 days, P = 0.001) as well as after accounting for delayed start time of second or later cases.

Laparoscopic sacrocolpopexy performed first case of the day without preoperative surgeon warm-up conferred no significant increase in intraoperative complications. Second or later cases were associated with small decreases in operative time and in LOS.