Background: The aim of this study was to introduce a coaxial-robotic single-site myomectomy (C-RSSM) technique to compensate for the shortcomings of robotic single-site myomectomy (RSSM) using semi-rigid instruments and to compare the surgical outcomes of C-RSSM and RSSM.
Methods: The medical records of 13 consecutive women who had undergone C-RSSM and 131 consecutive women who had undergone RSSM were retrospectively reviewed. Patient characteristics and surgical outcomes after propensity score matching were evaluated and compared between the two groups.
Results: According to the propensity score matching results, the C-RSSM group had a lower estimated blood loss (75.0 vs. 210.5 mL, p = 0.001) and a shorter operating time (101.0 vs. 146.1 min, p = 0.008) relative to the RSSM group. In RSSM, there was one case of conversion to conventional laparoscopy and four cases of conversion to the multi-site robotic approach. There was no case of conversion from C-RSSM to conventional laparoscopy or the multi-site robotic approach.
Conclusions: C-RSSM was found to be associated with shorter operative time and lower estimated blood loss. However, further prospective studies are needed to confirm these advantages.
Keywords: laparoscopy; robotic surgical procedures; uterine fibroids; uterine myomectomy.