Abstract
Objective: To describe the trends of surgery for benign uterine disease from 1995 through 2012.
Methods: The study comprised 8,629 women who underwent surgery for benign disease from 1995 through 2012. We evaluated the trends in patient background, the rate of hysterectomy or myomectomy, and the surgical route (abdominal, laparoscopically, hysteroscopically, or vaginally).
Conclusions: The myomectomy rate among total uterine procedures increased markedly from 20% to 70%. The route of hysterectomy evolved significantly. The rate of minimally invasive hysterectomy, i.e. vaginal and laparoscopic, increased constantly to 82% of all cases. In regard to myomectomies, the increase in laparoscopic myomectomy was significant. The average age of patients who underwent hysterectomy remained unchanged over this period, but that of myomectomies showed an interesting change. It averaged 32.7 years in 1995, and increased gradually to 38.4 years in 2012. However, the rate of women with infertility among the myomectomy cases remained almost unchanged at approximately 20%. These trends for benign uterine disease are discussed in association with improvements of laparoscopic surgery, i.e., surgical technique and instruments, as well as the changes in women's lifestyles.
