Short-term Outcomes and Pregnancy Rate After Laparoscopic Fertility-Sparing Surgery for Borderline Ovarian Tumors: A Single-Institute Experience

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the short-term outcomes and pregnancy rate after a laparoscopic approach to fertility preservation in patients with borderline ovarian tumors (BOTs). METHODS: Clinic-pathologic variants of patients with BOTs who underwent conservative surgery at the Tianjin Central Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology between January 2009 and July 2015 were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: Among 211 patients with BOTs, 74 (35.1%) received conservative surgery (44 cases using a laparoscopic approach and 30 cases using a laparotomy approach). The mean age of the laparotomy group was significantly younger than that of the laparoscopic group (P = 0.024). The maximal longitude of the tumor in the laparotomy group was significantly longer than that in the laparoscopic group (P < 0.001). The number of incomplete surgery cases in the laparoscopic group was significantly greater than that in the laparotomy group (P < 0.001). The 2 groups showed no significant differences in gravidity and parity before surgery, abnormality of serum tumor makers, tumor lateralities, ascites, histology, duration of follow-up, pregnancy rate after surgery, or postoperative recurrence. Total recurrent rate was 6.7% (5/74). Two cases in laparotomy group and 3 cases in laparoscopic group relapsed respectively. There was no significant difference of recurrent rate between the 2 groups. The total pregnant rate was 33.8% (25/74). Nine patients (30%) in the laparotomy group and 16 patients (36.4%) in the laparoscopic group became pregnant during follow-up respectively. There were no significant differences in the postoperative durations of pregnancy, pregnancy type, age at pregnancy, tumor lateralities, ascites, or type of pathology between 2 groups. The pregnancy rate of incomplete surgery cases in laparoscopic group was significantly higher than that of laparotomy group (P = 0.011). No recurrence occurred among the pregnant cases. CONCLUSIONS: A comprehensive laparoscopic surgery was not performed in incomplete surgery patients undergoing complete exploration. Good short-term outcomes and pregnancy were observed in patients receiving conservative laparoscopic surgery for BOTs, especially in patients receiving incomplete conservative laparoscopic surgery.