Laparoscopic sacrocolpopexy versus open abdominal sacrocolpopexy for pelvic organ prolapse repair: A retrospective cohort study

INTRODUCTION: Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a progressive herniation of the pelvic organs through the urogenital diaphragm and commonly leads to vaginal bulge. Sacrocolpopexy is a procedure that surgically corrects POP and can be performed as open abdominal surgery or laparoscopic surgery. This study was performed to compare the therapeutic efficacies of laparoscopic and abdominal sacrocolpopexy with hysterectomy. METHODS: The medical records of 105 patients who had undergone laparoscopic or open abdominal sacrocolpopexy with hysterectomy at Jeju National University Hospital were retrospectively reviewed. We compared the basic characteristics and clinical outcomes of these two groups of patients. RESULTS: No significant difference was observed between the characteristics of the patients in the abdominal-approach group and the laparoscopic-approach group. The laparoscopic-approach group had a lower intraoperative estimated blood loss (177.8 vs. 89.3 mL, P < 0.001) and a shorter operative time (132.0 vs. 112.3 min, P < 0.001) than the abdominal-approach group. The complication rates of the two groups were not significantly different. CONCLUSION: The results of our study favor the use of a laparoscopic approach for sacrocolpopexy with hysterectomy. The less invasive method leads to less blood loss and a shorter operative time than an open approach, while maintaining a comparable rate of complications.