Laparoscopic surgery for endometrial cancer is oncologically safe and improves hospital stay duration: a retrospective single-center study over a 16-year period

Objective To investigate changes in surgical procedures and patient outcomes of patients diagnosed with endometrial cancer (EC) at a German university hospital between 1998 and 2014. Methods A monocentric, retrospective review was conducted to identify patients diagnosed and treated with EC during the aforementioned period at the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the University Hospital Kiel, Germany. Results 303 patients were identified. Patient demographics, risk factors, histological subtypes and stages of EC remained consistent over time. The most common surgical procedure was total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH) (81.9%). In 2011, the institution carried out its first total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH) for EC, resulting in a significant increase in laparoscopic surgical procedures (2011–2014: N = 70; TAH 44.2%; TLH 51.4%). Although the total number of lymph node stagings remained consistent over time, there was a significant increase in the performance of simultaneous pelvic and para-aortic lymphonodectomy (LNE) compared to pelvic LNE alone (2.6 in 2001–2005 vs. 18.0% in 2011–2014, p ≤ 0.001). The duration of hospital stays significantly decreased over time, with a mean of 20.9 days in the first and 8.5 days in the last period. When comparing surgical procedures, TLHs resulted in significantly shorter postoperative stays with an average of 6.58 vs. 13.92 days for TAH. The surgical procedure performed did not affect 5-year overall survival rates in this study (84.9% for TAH and 85.3% for TLH, p = 0.85). Conclusions Our retrospective single-center study demonstrates that laparoscopic surgery for endometrial cancer is oncologically safe and shortens hospital stays.