Positive symptom improvement with laparoscopic uterosacral ligament repair for uterine or vaginal vault prolapse: interim results from an active multicenter trial.

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the use of laparoscopic uterosacral ligament repair for long-term patient symptom improvement in patients with uterine prolapse or posthysterectomy vaginal vault prolapse and to evaluate how laparoscopic instrumentation kits facilitate procedure performance for the surgeon.

DESIGN

Nonrandomized, prospective, multicenter case series (Canadian Task Force classification II-2).

SETTING

Five clinical sites consisting of 4 community hospitals and 1 university medical center.

PATIENTS

Seventy-two patients with stage II or worse uterine prolapse (58%, n = 42) or posthysterectomy vaginal vault prolapse (42%, n = 30). One patient with stage I vaginal vault prolapse was included in the group due to her significant symptoms.

INTERVENTIONS

Laparoscopic uterosacral ligament repair was performed on all patients; round ligament truncation was also performed selectively on patients with uterine prolapse. Fifty-seven percent (41 patients) had concomitant pelvic procedures.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

At 12-month follow-up, Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification (POP-Q) scores and patient self-reported symptom scores were significantly improved over baseline after laparoscopic repair of pelvic organ prolapse. Positive mean change in POP-Q score was 14.4 (p = .0003) for uterine prolapse repair and 9.28 (p = .017) for vaginal vault prolapse repair. Positive mean change in total symptom score was 20.36 (p <.0001) for uterine prolapse repair and 11.43 (p = .005) for vaginal vault prolapse repair. Surgeons reported a mean procedure time of 31.6 minutes for uterine prolapse repair and 21.7 minutes for vaginal vault prolapse repair. A mean rating of 7.5 was documented for ease of use for the uterine prolapse kit and 4.1 for the vaginal vault prolapse kit on a scale of 1 to 10.

CONCLUSION

Laparoscopic uterosacral ligament repair improves symptoms and POP-Q scores over the long term in patients with uterine or vaginal vault prolapse. Laparoscopic instrumentation kits facilitate procedure performance for the surgeon with expedited surgery times.