Risk Factors and Outcomes of Conversion to Open Surgery in Benign Gynecologic Laparoscopies: A Case-Control Study

To describe cases of conversion from gynecologic laparoscopy to open surgery and to assess risk factors for conversion and conversion outcomes.

A retrospective case-control study.

Tertiary referral hospital in Melbourne, Australia.

Eighty-five cases of conversion from laparoscopy to laparotomy and 170 controls matched by age, surgical date, and gynecologic unit from 2006 to 2017.

Demographic, clinical, and surgical data were collected and compared between the study groups. Logistic regression was performed to identify preoperative and intraoperative risk factors for conversion.

Rate of conversion during the study period was 0.7%. The most common indication for conversion was unexpected surgical complexity (67% of cases), which included severe adhesive disease, specimen size, severe pathology, and inadequate views. Factors that were significantly associated with risk of conversion in multivariate analysis were previous pelvic inflammatory disease (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 5.16; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.35-19.71; p = .02), previous open surgery (aOR 3.62; 95% CI, 1.52-8.58; p <.01), history of endometriosis (aOR 2.96; 95% CI, 1.17-7.50; p = .02), and elevated body mass index (aOR 1.07; 95% CI, 1.01-1.13; p = .02). As compared with current surgery for endometriosis, odds of conversion were higher in surgeries for emergency indications (aOR 5.40; 95% CI, 1.53-18.98; p <.01), uterine pathologies (aOR 3.34; 95% CI, 1.10-10.12; p = .03), and adnexal pathologies (aOR 2.76; 95% CI, 1.19-6.40; p = .02). With the inclusion of intraoperative factors, surgical adhesions were also found to be associated with conversion (aOR 3.19; 95% CI, 1.30-7.85; p = .01). Most skilled laparoscopic surgeon level as defined by the Australasian Gynaecological Endoscopy and Surgery Society was not associated with conversion risk. Conversion to laparotomy was associated with a higher rate of intraoperative and postoperative complications and prolonged length of stay.

Conversion to laparotomy is a rare but very important clinical outcome measure of laparoscopic surgery. Understanding the factors contributing to conversion and perioperative outcomes may help clinicians to identify and counsel patients before surgery and to reduce surgical morbidity.