The Role of Laparoscopic Radical Hysterectomy in Early-Stage Adenocarcinoma of the Uterine Cervix.

OBJECTIVE: To compare long-term survival outcomes and patterns of recurrence of laparoscopic radical hysterectomy (LRH) and open radical hysterectomy (ORH) in early-stage cervical adenocarcinoma.

METHODS: The medical records of 293 patients with stage IA2-IIA cervical adenocarcinomas who underwent radical hysterectomy were retrospectively reviewed.

RESULTS: In total, 186 patients underwent LRH and 107 underwent ORH. There was no difference between the two surgery groups in clinicopathologic characteristics. There were no differences in disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) between the LRH and ORH groups (88.7 vs. 84.1 %, P = 0.725; and 93.0 vs. 86.9 %, P = 0.735) for univariate analysis and multivariate analysis after adjusting for other significant prognostic factors. There was no difference in the patterns of recurrence between the two surgery groups (P = 0.220). The median time interval between surgery and the first recurrence were 25 months (range, 3-100 months) for LRH group and 14 months (range, 3-128 months) for ORH group (P = 0.230). The LRH group showed significantly fewer postoperative complications (P < 0.001), less estimated blood loss (P < 0.001), faster bowel movement recovery (P < 0.001), shorter postoperative hospital stay (P < 0.001), and a lower rate of wound dehiscence, ileus, lymphedema, infected lymphocele, and pelvic abscess (P = 0.004, 0.011, 0.017, and 0.040, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: LRH has comparable survival outcomes with ORH and did not affect the pattern of recurrence in early-stage adenocarcinoma of the uterine cervix. The surgical outcomes were more favorable than ORH.