Incidence of vaginal cuff dehiscence after open or laparoscopic hysterectomy: a case report.

Background: The incidence of vaginal incision dehiscence after total hysterectomy has been reported to be higher with laparoscopic than with open surgery, but the data are limited. This report documents a case and reviews the literature in order to further estimate the differences in incidence by route of hysterectomy.

Case: A 45-year-old woman underwent successful vaginal repair of postcoital cuff dehiscence with small bowel evisceration 67 days after total laparoscopic hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy for menometrorhagia.

Conclusion: Seven observational studies were identified. The comparison of total laparoscopic to robotic hysterectomy was not statistically significant, nor was the comparison of total abdominal to vaginal hysterectomy. However, the incidence of dehiscence for laparoscopic procedures was statistically greater than the incidence for open surgery (p value <0.001).