A case-control study of robot-assisted type III radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection compared with open radical hysterectomy

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to compare robotically assisted hysterectomy (RAH) with open (ORH) type III radical hysterectomy in the treatment of early-stage cervical cancer. STUDY DESIGN: The outcomes of 51 consecutive patients who underwent RAH were compared with the outcomes of 49 patients who underwent ORH. RESULTS: There were no differences with regard to patient demographics. There were significant differences between the groups with regard to operative blood loss (P < .0001), operative time (P = .0002), and lymph node retrieval (P = .0003), all of which were in favor of the RAH cohort. All patients with RAH were discharged on postoperative day 1, compared with a 3.2-day average hospitalization for the cohort with ORH. The incidence of postoperative complications was 7.8% and 16.3% for the RAH and ORH cohorts, respectively (P = .35). CONCLUSION: Robotic type III radical hysterectomy with pelvic node dissection is feasible and may be preferable over open radical hysterectomy in patients with early-stage cervical cancer. Further study will determine procedure generalizability and long-term oncologic outcomes.