Vaginal Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (vNOTES) for Gynecological Procedures in Obese Patients: A...

Aim: This study was conducted to determine the feasibility, safety, and clinical outcomes of the vaginal natural-orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (vNOTES) approach in gynecology for obese patients. Methods: PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar were searched, from inception to April 2025. A systematic review was performed following the PRISMA guidelines. Studies assessing the use of vNOTES for gynecological procedures in obese women were included. The quality of included articles was evaluated according to the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Results: The search yielded three retrospective cohort studies, one cross-sectional, and ten case series. The patients in the vNOTES group (n = 99) had statistically significant shorter operative times, reduced hospitalization, lower postoperative pain scores, fewer perioperative complications, and improved quality of life when compared to the laparoscopy group (n = 84). A study compared obese women to non-obese women undergoing vNOTES and found that operative times were longer in the obese group. Conversion to laparoscopy or laparotomy occurred in fewer than 5% of cases, and intraoperative and postoperative complication rates were low across all studies. Conclusions: vNOTES appears to be safe and potentially superior to other minimally invasive techniques. The small sample size of the case series and the lack of a sufficient number of comparative studies limit the strength of the conclusions.