Quality of life after single-port laparoscopic surgery versus conventional laparoscopic surgery for benign gynecologic disease.

BACKGROUND

The aim of current study was to determine whether single-port laparoscopic surgery (SP-LS) improves the health-related quality of life (QoL) compared with conventional laparoscopic surgery (conventional LS) in women with benign gynecologic disease.

METHODS

We performed a prospective case-control study from October 2010 to December 2012. A total of 273 women with benign gynecologic disease participated in this study, and 135 of them were in the SP-LS group and 138 in the conventional LS. We evaluated QoL after SP-LS or conventional LS. All patients were asked to complete short-form 36 (SF-36) QoL health surveys preoperatively and at 1, 3, and 6 months postoperatively.

RESULTS

Clinical characteristics and operative outcomes showed no significant differences between both groups. SP-LS had no benefits in QoL compared with conventional LS in the main categories, even though SP-LS showed statistically significant higher scores than conventional LS for the role of physical domain at 1 month postoperatively and for social function at 3 months postoperatively. In contrast to this, conventional LS had statistically significant higher scores than SP-LS for role function, bodily pain, general health, vitality, and emotional well-being at 6 months postoperatively.

CONCLUSIONS

With a 6-month follow-up, SP-LS does not offer a QoL benefit over conventional LS in women with benign gynecologic disease. However, a larger prospective randomized study would be required to confirm this.