Robot-Assisted Vaginal Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (RvNOTES) With Total Hysterectomy for Management of Stage IV Endometriosis With/Without Complete Cul-de-Sac Obliteration: 23-Case Pilot Feasibility Study

Gufeng Xu, Daniel Y Lovell, Lovell DY, Guan X, Xiaoming Guan
Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology · 2024 · vol. 31(6) , pp. 496–503 · doi:10.1016/j.jmig.2024.03.006 · PMID:38493829 · W4392888640
article OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 3 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-10 ⓘ

This pilot study investigated the feasibility of robot-assisted vaginal natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (RvNOTES) for total hysterectomy in 23 patients with stage IV endometriosis, with or without complete cul-de-sac obliteration.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To show feasibility and short-term outcomes of robot-assisted vaginal NOTES (RvNOTES) for the treatment of stage IV endometriosis during total hysterectomy with/without complete cul-de-sac obliteration. DESIGN: Retrospective case series. SETTING: Single academic tertiary care hospital in Houston, Texas, USA. PATIENTS: Twenty-three adult women with stage IV endometriosis. INTERVENTIONS: RvNOTES with total hysterectomy for excision of severe endometriosis. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Patients were assessed for various metrics including total operative time, robot dock time, robot console time, hysterectomy time, estimated blood loss, perioperative pain using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), and complications. The mean total operative time was 224.3 minutes. The study also found that patients with complete cul-de-sac obliteration had significantly longer operative times and higher estimated blood loss compared to those with partial or no obliteration. Postoperative VAS pain scores showed a significant reduction over a 6-week period. Complications included one case of complete ureteral transection, pelvic hematoma with infection, vaginal abscess, urinary tract infection, and pneumonia. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that RvNOTES may be a feasible surgical approach in expert hands for treating stage IV endometriosis, even in cases with complete obliteration of the cul-de-sac.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis Endometriosis

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (26)

Cited by (3)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-08-04T06:16:37.499272+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-08-04T06:14:49.338329+00:00
unpaywall
last seen: 2026-06-13T06:42:57.164913+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK