Laparoscopy compared with laparotomy for the surgical staging of endometrial carcinoma

Aim: To evaluate and compare laparoscopic‐assisted surgical staging with conventional laparotomy for the treatment of endometrial carcinoma. Methods: From July 2001 to December 2003, a retrospective review of patients with endometrial carcinoma was carried out. The medical records of those patients who had undergone surgical staging with hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo‐oophorectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy (PLN) were evaluated. Primary outcome measures were operating time (OT), estimated blood loss, total number of lymph nodes yielded, intraoperative complications, postoperative complications, and length of hospital stay. Result: A total of 64 cases were identified. Two cases were excluded because of incomplete records. Two cases with para‐aortic lymphadenectomy and four cases with Wertheim's hysterectomy were excluded from the study. Thirty‐six patients underwent laparotomy with total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo‐oophorectomy and PLN (laparotomy group). Twenty patients underwent the same surgery by laparoscopy, of which 19 were successfully carried out (laparoscopy group). One case was converted to laparotomy. The mean OT in the laparoscopy group was longer when compared with the laparotomy group (211 min vs 94 min, P