‘Money for nothing’. The role of robotic-assisted laparoscopy for the treatment of endometriosis

Nicola Berlanda, Maria Pina Frattaruolo, Giorgio Aimi, Aimi G, Marilena Farella, Farella M, Giussy Barbàra, Giussy Barbara, Laura Buggio, Buggio L, Paolo Vercellini
Reproductive BioMedicine Online · 2017 · vol. 35(4) , pp. 435–444 · doi:10.1016/j.rbmo.2017.05.010 · PMID:28624343 · W2620361813
review OA: closed CC0 ⤵ 20 in-corpus citations
View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-07 ⓘ

This paper examines the effectiveness and cost-benefit of robotic-assisted laparoscopy in treating endometriosis.

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

Abstract

Despite higher costs for robotic-assisted laparoscopy (RAL) than standard laparoscopy (SL), RAL treatment of endometriosis is performed without established indications. PubMed/MEDLINE was searched for 'robotic surgery' and 'endometriosis' or 'gynaecological benign disease' from January 2000 to December 2016. Full-length studies in English reporting original data were considered. Among 178 articles retrieved, 17 were eligible: 11 non-comparative (RAL only) and six comparative (RAL versus SL). Non-comparative studies included 445 patients. Mean operating time, blood loss and hospital stay were 226 min, 168 ml and 4 days. Major complications and laparotomy conversions were 3.1% and 1.3%. Eight studies reported pain improvement at 15-month follow-up. Comparative studies were all retrospective; 749 women underwent RAL and 705 SL. Operating time was longer for RAL in five studies. Major complications and laparotomy conversions for RAL and SL were 1.5% versus 0.3% and 0.3% versus 0.5%. One study reported pain reduction for RAL at 6-month follow-up. RAL treatment of endometriosis did not provide benefits over SL, overall and among subgroups of women with severe endometriosis, peritoneal endometriosis and obesity. Available evidence is low-quality, and data regarding long-term pain relief and pregnancy rates are lacking. RAL treatment of endometriosis should be performed only within controlled studies.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

Condition tags

endometriosis

MeSH descriptors

Endometriosis Health Care Costs Laparoscopy Robotic Surgical Procedures Adult Endometriosis Female Humans Laparoscopy Laparoscopy Middle Aged Retrospective Studies Robotic Surgical Procedures Robotic Surgical Procedures Treatment Outcome

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 (56)

Cited by (20)

Source provenance

europepmc
last seen: 2026-08-10T06:11:17.106188+00:00
openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
pubmed
last seen: 2026-05-13T22:20:25.745717+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK