STUDY OBJECTIVE: To analyze indications for preoperative selection of patients with cystic adnexal masses to be treated by laparoscopic surgery. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis (Canadian Task Force classification II-2). SETTING: University and military hospitals. PATIENTS: Three hundred sixteen women with adnexal masses. INTERVENTION: Before laparoscopy, 214 patients underwent evaluation (size of adnexal mass, ultrasonographic image, CA 125, suspicious clinical diagnosis); in 102 women laparoscopies were performed without taking these factors into account. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: In the first center 99% of women were treated by laparoscopic surgery. One (0.4%) tumor of low malignant potential detected by deferred biopsy was operated on. In the second center 98% of cases were performed laparoscopically. In 3.9% of women carcinomas were detected intraoperatively and were treated by laparotomy (p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: Laparoscopy is appropriate management of cystic adnexal masses, with a very low risk of unintentionally operating an ovarian carcinoma if a thorough preoperative evaluation is conducted. Only in centers where surgeons have enough training to cope with ovarian cancer may this evaluation be deferred, since conversion to laparotomy should be considered a second therapeutic step, and not an incorrect indication for laparoscopy. In centers where surgeons have no such training, strict preoperative selection of patients is mandatory
STUDY OBJECTIVE: To analyze indications for preoperative selection of patients with cystic adnexal masses to be treated by laparoscopic surgery. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis (Canadian Task Force classification II-2). SETTING: University and military hospitals. PATIENTS: Three hundred sixteen women with adnexal masses. INTERVENTION: Before laparoscopy, 214 patients underwent evaluation (size of adnexal mass, ultrasonographic image, CA 125, suspicious clinical diagnosis); in 102 women laparoscopies were performed without taking these factors into account. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: In the first center 99% of women were treated by laparoscopic surgery. One (0.4%) tumor of low malignant potential detected by deferred biopsy was operated on. In the second center 98% of cases were performed laparoscopically. In 3.9% of womencarcinomas were detected intraoperatively and were treated by laparotomy (p = 0.04). CONCLUSION: Laparoscopy is appropriate management of cystic adnexal masses, with a very low risk of unintentionally operating an ovarian carcinoma if a thorough preoperative evaluation is conducted. Only in centers where surgeons have enough training to cope with ovarian cancer may this evaluation be deferred, since conversion to laparotomy should be considered a second therapeutic step, and not an incorrect indication for laparoscopy. In centers where surgeons have no such training, strict preoperative selection of patients is mandatory