Vaginal natural orifice transvaginal endoscopic surgery (vNOTES) surgical staging for endometrial carcinoma: The feasibility of an innovative approach
This study aims to describe the feasibility of treating early-stage endometrial cancer with hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, sentinel lymph node biopsy, and bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy by vaginal Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (vNOTES). A longitudinal study of prospectively registered patients was conducted at an academic tertiary care center. 15 patients who underwent vNOTES surgical staging of early endometrial carcinoma between January 2014 and December 2020 were included in the study. 15 patients between 20 and 80yrs of age with histologically proven Stage1 Gr1-2 endometrial cancer underwent vNOTES surgical staging. The mean age of the study population was 52.8 years (Standard Deviation [SD] 6.8) and the mean BMI was 27.8 kg/m With this study, we studied the feasibility of vNOTES surgery for early-stage endometrial cancer with minimal complications and the best long-term surgical outcome. The surgeries were performed by a single skilled endoscopist surgeon with previous experience with vNOTES surgery for adnexal tumors and hysterectomy. Our results showed the practicality of vNOTES in staging surgery for early-stage endometrial cancer. However, application to a larger cohort is required for more extensive surgical outcome studies.