Perioperative Outcomes of Combined Gynecologic Oncology and Urogynecologic Surgeries

Abstract

Background: Many women diagnosed with a gynecologic malignancy may have coinciding urogynecologic complaints, such as pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and/or urinary incontinence, with approximately 35% reporting moderate to severe symptoms. Recent National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database inquiries of gynecologic cancer cases found only 2.3-2.4% of women undergoing interventional surgery for gynecologic malignancy also had a procedure for pelvic organ prolapse urinary incontinence (POPUI), and those combination cases did not show significant increase in postoperative risks. The purpose of our study is to review our cases of gynecologic cancer that underwent concomitant urogynecologic procedures and compare their perioperative outcomes to gynecologic cancer cases without concomitant urogynecologic procedures. Methods: A retrospective cohort study conducted at a teaching hospital included 29 gynecologic oncology patients who underwent robot-assisted total laparoscopic hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and lymphadenectomy. Controls underwent standard staging procedure and were compared to women with concomitant pelvic floor dysfunction that underwent additional laparoscopic uterosacral ligament suspension for apical suspension and a sling for stress urinary incontinence (SUI). The primary outcome was operative time, defined as documented total operative time and robot console time. Secondary outcomes include delta hemoglobin, hospital length of stay, readmission rate, total pain medication, urinary retention and discharge with foley. Results: The combined case group had longer total procedure time duration (301 minutes versus 210 minutes, p-value < 0.0001), with comparable mean console time (178 minutes versus 160 minutes; p = 0.1456). Blood loss estimated by mean percent difference of Hgb showed moderate conditional dependence on surgical case (22.2% cases versus 14.9% controls, p-value 0.04). Combined cases resulted in 76.9% of subjects discharged with a foley catheter compared to none in controls (p-value < 0.0001). Otherwise, there was no difference in the other perioperative outcomes between the two groups. Conclusion: With appropriate counseling and clinical judgement, combined urogynecologic and gynecologic oncologic surgeries can be performed to improve a patient’s quality of life (QOL) with minimal increase in perioperative morbidity.