THURSDAY, Nov. 3, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with endometrial cancer, robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery is faster than traditional surgery, according to a study published in the November issue of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Minna M. Mäenpää, M.D., from Tampere University Hospital in Finland, and colleagues compared traditional and robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery for endometrial cancer in a randomized controlled trial. One hundred one endometrial cancer patients were randomly allocated to hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and pelvic lymphadenectomy by robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery or traditional laparoscopy; 99 patients were eligible for analysis.
The researchers found that the median operation time was 170 minutes in the traditional laparoscopy group and 139 minutes in the robotic surgery group (P < 0.001). The robotic surgery group also had a shorter total time spent in the operating room than the traditional group (197 versus 228 minutes; P < 0.001). There were five conversions to laparotomy in the traditional laparoscopy group versus none in the robotic surgery group (P = 0.027). The number of lymph nodes removed, bleeding, and length of postoperative hospital stay did not differ between the groups. There were no significant differences between the groups in intraoperative complications (P = 0.56) and major postoperative complications (P = 0.111).
"Robotic surgery offers an effective and safe alternative in the surgical treatment of endometrial cancer," the authors write.
One author spent four years as a proctor for robotic surgery.
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