Laparoscopy vs Robotics in Surgical Management of Endometrial Cancer: Comparison of Intraoperative and Postoperative Complications

Study Objective: To compare the rates of intraoperative and postoperative complications of robotic surgery and laparoscopy in the surgical treatment of endometrial cancer. Design: Unicentric retrospective study (Canadian Task Force classification II-2). Setting: Tertiary teaching hospital. Patients: The study was performed from January 2002 to December 2011 and included patients with endometrial cancer who underwent laparoscopic or robotically assisted laparoscopic surgical treatment. Data collected included preoperative data, tumor characteristics, intraoperative data (route of surgery, surgical procedures, and complications), and postoperative data (early and late complications according to the Clavien-Dindo classification, and length of hospital stay). Morbidity was compared between the 2 groups. Measurements and Main Results: The study included 146 patients, of whom 106 underwent laparoscopy and 40 underwent robotically assisted surgery. The 2 groups were comparable in terms of demographic and preoperative data. Intraoperative complications occurred in 9.4% of patients who underwent laparoscopy and in none who underwent robotically assisted surgery (p = .06). There was no difference between the 2 groups in terms of postoperative events. Conclusion: Robotically assisted surgery is not associated with a significant difference in intraoperative and postoperative complications, even when there were no intraoperative complications of robotically assisted surgery. (C) 2014 AAGL. All rights reserved.