A new approach to simplify surgical colpotomy in laparoscopic hysterectomy

Table 3 Patient characteristics and procedure data (N = 107; 91 Leiden University Medical Center and 16 Bronovo hospital)

		Mean	SD	p value
Age (years)		49.4	10.6
BMI (kg/m²)		27.4	7.0
Parity^a		2	1.4
		Number (%)
Previous operations	None	66 (62)
Previous operations	One or more abdominal surgeries	41 (38)
Indication for operation	Abnormal bleeding and / or uterine leiomyoma	68 (64)
	(pre-)malignancy	37 (35)
	Other^b	2 (2)
Total operating time (min)		116.4	35.3
Colpotomy time (min)		17.9	7.8
TOT minus CT (min)		98.5	31.5
Uterine weight (g)		242.8	175.0
Estimated blood loss (ml)		142.5	194.7
Complications (total and %)	Peri-operative lesions^c	1 (1 %)
	Post-operative infection^d	6 (6 %)
	Other^e	9 (9 %)
Colpotomy-total OR time (%)		16	5
Colpotomy time	No complications occurred (N = 91)	18.0	8.1
Colpotomy time	A complication occurred (N = 15)	17.9	6.0	1.0
Colpotomy time	No previous abdominal surgery	17.6	7.3	.6
Colpotomy time	With previous abdominal surgery	18.4	8.6	.6

BMI body mass index
^aMedian
^b1 endometritis and salpingitis, 1 abdominal pain
^c1 bladder injury
^d5 urinary tract infections, 1 pneumonia
^e1 ileus, 1 urinary retention, 1 re-admittance for unexplained fever, 1 lost needle during surgery resulting in enlargement of the trocar incision, 1 patient with facial subcutaneous emphysema that required admittance at the intensive care unit, 1 infected hematoma, 1 vaginal cuff dehiscence occurring 4 weeks after surgery, 1 abdominal pain that led to additional surgery 10 days after TLH resulting in a partial oophorectomy, and 1 repeat laparoscopy on the same day regarding a loss of blood exceeding 300 ml