The Feasibility and Safety of Robot-Assisted Vaginal Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (RA-vNOTES) for Gynecologic Disease: 298-Case Series
<b>Objectives:</b> To explore the feasibility and surgical outcomes of robot-assisted vaginal natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (RA-vNOTES) for women suffering from gynecologic disease. <b>Methods:</b> We performed an observational study reporting and analyzing the perioperative outcomes of 298 patients with gynecologic disease who underwent RA-vNOTES in a single institution from June 2019 to August 2024. <b>Results:</b> A total of 298 patients with a median age of 41 years and median body mass index of 29 kg/m<sup>2</sup> underwent RA-vNOTES. The primary indications for surgery were endometriosis (43.62%), chronic pelvic pain (11.07%), abnormal uterine bleeding (20.81%), and uterine leiomyomata (14.77%). A total of 286 of 298 (95.97%) patients had a hysterectomy. The median total operating time was 138 min, with a port placement time of 5 min, dock time of 3 min, and robot console time of 63 min. The median estimated blood loss was 50 milliliters. Endometriosis resection of all stages was performed in 192 of 298 (64.43%) patients. Three cases (1.01%) were converted to laparoscopic surgery. One case was converted to robot-assisted single incision plus one port laparoscopic surgery (SILS plus one) and two cases were converted to robot-assisted multi-port surgery. The total complication rate was 17.45% (52 cases), of which 2.1% (6 cases) were intraoperative complications and 15.44% (46 cases) were postoperative complications. <b>Conclusions:</b> Our findings indicate that RA-vNOTES is a feasible and less invasive option for various gynecologic procedures, including complex endometriosis excision and sacrocolpopexy.
Authors
- Daniel Y. Lovell
- Yingchun Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1290-4790)
- Xiaoming Guan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2744-4512)
- Qiannan Yang
- Chunhua Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6685-0137)
Institutions
- Baylor College of Medicine (US)
- Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University (CN)
- Shandong First Medical University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Healthcare
- Published
- 2025-03-25
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare13070720
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Minimally Invasive Surgical Techniques
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.01