title: Is total laparoscopic hysterectomy a safe surgical procedure?
abstract: Total hysterectomy via laparoscopy is a recently developed technique. Assessment of a new surgical technique, once the operation has been shown to be feasible, requires an evaluation of the risks of complications. Here we report our cumulative 3 year experience with laparoscopic hysterectomy in a total of 222 patients. The overall complication rate was 10.0%. We did not observe any haemorrhage complications requiring another operation. Four patients (1.8%) were re-admitted to hospital but only two of them (0.9%) had to be operated upon again (one vesico-vaginal fistula and one vaginal cuff wound separation). These encouraging results mean that, provided the surgeons are experienced in laparoscopic surgery, total laparoscopic hysterectomy technique would appear not to have a higher rate of complications than hysterectomy via laparotomy or the vaginal route.
authors.affiliation: Service de Chirurgie Gynécologique, Clinique Universitaire Baudelocque, CHU Cochin Port-Royal, Paris, France.
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Chapron
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Dubuisson
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ansquer
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007044:Hysterectomy / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods*; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001743:Urinary Bladder / Q000293:injuries; D014621:Vagina / Q000293:injuries; D014719:Vesicovaginal Fistula / Q000209:etiology