The Effects of a Laparoscopy by Single-port Endoscopic Access in Benign Adnexal Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Study Objective To evaluate whether laparoendoscopic single-site surgery (LESS) offers advantages over conventional laparoscopy (CL) in benign adnexal surgery. Design Randomized controlled study. Setting Gynecology-Obstetrics Unit of the University Hospital of the Conception in Marseille, France. Patients Patients older than 18 years requiring ovarian cystectomy or salpingo-oophorectomy by laparoscopy for symptomatic ovarian cysts requiring benign or prophylactic surgery. Interventions In the case of ovarian cysts, premenopausal patients typically undergo a unilateral cystectomy, whereas postmenopausal patients undergo a unilateral or bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy upon a patient's request. In cases requiring prophylactic surgery, a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy was performed. All participants were randomly assigned to either the LESS or the CL group. Measurements and Main Results Patients in both groups reported similar levels of pain at 24 hours: Simple Numerical Scale was 1.3 (standard deviation, 1.5) in the LESS group vs 1.7 (standard deviation, 1.5) in the CL group (p = .12), and there were no significant differences in postoperative pain at 2 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours, and 7 days. Furthermore, there was no difference in analgesic consumption. Regarding intraoperative criteria, the only difference was the longer operating time in the LESS group than the CL group. We also found that patients’ satisfaction with their scar at 1 month may be higher with LESS than with CL. Conclusion There was no significant difference between the 2 techniques in postoperative pain, although the LESS technique necessitated a longer operative time than the CL technique, while providing better aesthetic result patients.