Total Laparoscopic Nerve-Sparing Radical Hysterectomy Using the No-look No-touch Technique

Abstract

Radical hysterectomy is a standard operation for patients with early-stage cervical cancer. Over the recent decades, laparoscopic radical hysterectomy has been considered an alternative treatment. In 2018, the results of the laparoscopic approach to cervical cancer trial suggested that women with early-stage cervical cancer who underwent minimally invasive surgery for radical hysterectomy had poorer prognosis than those who underwent open surgery. This finding was unexpected, and direct evidence supporting poor prognosis related to minimally invasive radical hysterectomy was not available because the trial was not designed to evaluate the cause of the inferior outcomes. Tumor spillage caused by surgeon-related factors, including squeezing of the uterine cervix and tumor exposure to circulating CO2 gas, is considered to be associated with the poor prognosis of patients who underwent minimally invasive radical hysterectomy. We believe that protective maneuver to avoid tumor spillage is the key to improve oncologic outcomes of cervical cancer. Here, we present a procedure of total laparoscopic nerve-sparing radical hysterectomy for early-stage cervical cancer in which techniques, such as the “no-look no-touch technique,” were used to prevent tumor spillage.

Keywords

• cervical cancer
• laparoscopic radical hysterectomy
• nerve-sparing
• no-look no-touch technique
• tumor spillage