Laparoscopic management of women with a family history of ovarian cancer

Background and Objective: The safety of laparoscopic surgery in women with a family history of ovarian cancer predicted to have benign disease has not been established. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibil ity and complications of operative laparoscopy and to describe the patholog ic findings in this patient population. Methods: Sixty-two consecutive women with a family history of ovarian cance r who elected prophylactic oophorectomy or had predicted benign adnexal dis ease were offered laparoscopic surgery. Patient characteristics, details of laparoscopic surgery, operative and postoperative complications, and histo pathologic findings were recorded. Results: Laparoscopy was converted to laparotomy in 2 patients (3.2%); 1 pa tient (1.6%) had an operative vascular complication, and 1 patient (1.6%) h ad postoperative bleeding. Median (range) estimated blood loss, operative t ime, and hospital stay were 50 ml (50-1, 500), 120 min (60-290), and 1 day (0-9), respectively. Histopathologic findings included normal ovaries (n = 20), corpus luteum cyst (n = 16), follicular cyst (n = 8), endometriotic cy st(n = 7), serous cystadenoma (n = 5), epithelial hyperplasia (n = 4), derm oid cyst (n = 1), and fibrothecoma (n = 1). Conclusions: Laparoscopic surgery is feasible and safe in women with a fami ly history of ovarian cancer predicted to have benign disease and is associ ated with low blood loss and short hospital stay. Most ovaries removed are either normal or have benign disease. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.