Complications of total laparoscopic hysterectomy: A retrospective study of cases performed by a single surgeon

Hysterectomy is the most common gynaecological surgery and there are different techniques of performing hysterectomy. With the advent of laparoscopic technology, laparoscopic hysterectomy (LH) is rapidly gaining its ground. However, every surgery has its complications which are specific but also depends on various factors such as surgical sk[ills and experience of surgeons, levels of operative laparoscopy and patient populations.

In this study, we evaluated the complications of total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH) and analysed the trend of complications, intraoperative and post-operative, over a period of time.

It was a retrospective study conducted in the private care setting. All women who underwent hysterectomy for benign conditions from a 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2017, (15 years) were included in this study. A total of 3272 patients were operated during this period. All surgeries were performed by a single surgeon.

Intraoperative complications that occurred during surgery during the study period were 3 cases (0.09%) had bladder injury, 3 cases (0.09%) had bowel injury, 1 case (0.03%) had internal iliac vessel bleeding and 1 case(0.03%) needed conversion to vaginal hysterectomy due to cautery failure and post operative complications were 90 cases (2.75%) had vault bleeding, 2 cases (0.06%) had intestinal obstruction, 5 cases (0.15%) had paralytic ileus, 1 case (0.03%) had vesicovaginal fistula, 1 case(0.03%) had ureterovaginal fistula and 1 case (0.03%) had peritonitis.

TLH is a very effective, patient-friendly and safe technique in the hands of experienced surgeons giving good quality of life to patients postoperatively.