NEW APPROACHES IN LAPAROSCOPICALLY ASSISTED RADICAL VAGINAL HYSTERECTOMY

Background. To illuminate our new approaches in laparoscopically assis ted radical vaginal hysterectomy. Methods. Twenty-four women underwent laparoscopically assisted radical vaginal hysterectomies during the p eriod from March 1994 to May 1995 in our institute, Indications for th is surgery, including cervical carcinoma stage 1A to 2A, were the same as for abdominal radical hysterectomy, The procedure was performed un der general endotracheal anesthesia through means of the technique of videolaparoscopy. Two new approaches were recruited in these procedure s including using middle upper abdomen as the primary trocar site and using ureteral stent or illuminator as a ureter marker. Results. All o f these patients completed the procedures without exception, The mean hospital stay was 8.2+/-3.2 days, The average blood loss was 540+/-210 ml with a range from 100 to 1800 ml, Operating time was from 220 to 4 20 minutes with a mean time of 325 minutes, In all cases pelvic lympha denectomy was performed without exception, yielding an average of 13.2 macroscopic nodes. Two of them metastatic lymph nodes were noted. No ureteral injury occurred after using the ureteral stent as a marker. C onclusions. In this preliminary result, using middle upper abdomen as the primary trocar site could provide the surgeon with a wider and fam iliar visual angle, thus making the pelvic or para-aortic lymphadenect omy much easier, Moreover, using the ureteral illuminator as a marker during unroofing the ureter laparoscopically is helpful to prevent the ureteral injury and facilitating the procedures in laparoscopically r adical hysterectomy.