Comparison of Two Techniques of Laparoscopy-Assisted Peritoneal Vaginoplasty

Abstract Neovagina creation is essential for patients with the Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome. We compared a technique involved the pushing down of the peritoneum with the technique of separating the peritoneum for laparoscopy-assisted peritoneal vaginoplasty. We collected patients with congenital absence of vagina who underwent laparoscopy-assisted peritoneal vaginoplasty of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University between January 2011 and May 2013. The 2 surgical groups (pushing group and separating group) were compared for various parameters. The values of the following parameters were significantly lower for the pushing group compared with the separating group: mean operating time (78 ± 13 minutes vs 135 ± 28 minutes), mean duration of hospitalization (12.9 ± 2.7 days vs 18.0 ± 3.8 days), mean cost of hospitalization (14 016 ± 1640 RMB vs 18 783 ± 2143 RMB), requirement for a drainage tube (4% vs 27%; χ 2 = 8.864), requirement for analgesic drugs (20% vs 40%; χ 2 = 3.977), and postoperative rehospitalization (3.3% vs 10.0% at 2 months and 6.7% vs 26.7% at 6 months; χ 2 = 4.268 and 5.196). Mean values for blood loss (57 ± 19 mL vs 66 ± 20 mL), time to pass gas (21 ± 4 hours vs 23 ± 7 hours), and length of the reconstructed vagina (9.0 ± 0.4 cm vs 8.9 ± 0.5 cm) were not significantly different between the 2 groups. In addition, mean postoperative Female Sexual Function Index score did not differ significantly between the 2 groups or among the 2 groups and a control group (27.0 ± 4.8 vs 26.7 ± 5.2 vs 27.9 ± 4.5; p > .05). The technique involving pushing down of the peritoneum offers advantages of reduced cost, complications, hospitalization, operative time, and pain over the traditional technique. Sexuality approaches so-called “normal” sexuality.