Comparison of robotic-assisted hysterectomy to other minimally invasive approaches.

Objective: To compare surgical outcomes for robotic assisted total laparoscopic hysterectomy (RH) to other minimally invasive hysterectomy (MIH) types, including total laparoscopic hysterectomy (TLH), laparoscopic-assisted vaginal hysterectomy (LAVH), and vaginal hysterectomy (VH).

Methods: Retrospective cohort study of all patients who underwent RH or MIH for benign indications between January 2007 and May 2010 at 2 Henry Ford Health System teaching hospitals. Age, race, body mass index (BMI), procedure duration, estimated blood loss (EBL), peri-operative hemoglobin change, uterine weight, length of hospital stay (LOS), and complications were collected from electronic medical records and were compared between RH and MIH groups.

Results: Included in the analysis were 135 RH and 162 MIH cases (n = 34 VH, n = 82 LAVH, n = 46 TLH). There were no differences in age, race, or BMI between groups, but RH patients had significantly larger uteri (P = .007; RH, 13.5%>500g; MIH 4.0%>500g). MIH patients had significantly greater EBL (P < .001) and drop in hemoglobin (P = .02) than RH patients with a 150 mL difference in median EBL (200 mL versus 50 mL) between groups. RH had longer procedure durations than MIH (P = .0002) overall, but not compared to the TLH subgroup. RH patients had a shorter LOS than MIH patients had (P = .02) who had a longer LOS for LAVH patients. Although readmission and major complication rates were similar in both groups, minor adverse events occurred more frequently in the MIH group (21.6%) than the RH group (8.9%) (P = .003).

Conclusion: RH has comparable surgical outcomes, and possibly decreased blood loss, shorter length of stay, and fewer minor complications than other methods of MIH.