Temporary Occlusion of Internal Iliac Arteries: Way to Improve Laparoscopic Myomectomy
Laparoscopic myomectomy has a number of proven advantages. However, even for an experienced surgeon it is quite a challenging procedure, especially when leiomyomas are large or located in "inconvenient" sites. Uterine myomectomy may be associated with a substantial amount of intraoperative blood loss, long operating time, prolonged hospitalization, and high rates of postoperative complications. Surgeons use various strategies to overcome these drawbacks of the laparoscopic surgery and find ways to preserve its advantages. Temporary occlusion of the internal iliac arteries must be given careful attention because it is reliable and reproducible. This technique helps achieve a statistically significant reduction in blood loss, decreases the need for blood-product transfusions, and shortens the length of hospital stay without any significant changes in the operating time. This paper analyzes the outcomes of 512 myomectomy procedures performed using temporary occlusion of the internal iliac arteries.