Objective 　To assess the clinical effectiveness and safety of laparoscopy versus laparotomy for endometrial cancer.
Methods 　The databases such as The Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMbase, Ovid, CNKI, WanFang Data, and VIP were searched to collect the randomized control trials (RCTs) about the clinical effectiveness and safety of laparoscopy and laparotomy for endometrial cancer. The retrieval time was from January 1998 to September 2012. Two reviewers independently screened the literature according to the inclusive and exclusive criteria, extracted the data, and assessed the methodological quality of included studies. Then the meta-analysis was performed by using RevMan 5.0 software.
Results 　A total of 10 RCTs involving 6 993 patients were included. Meta-analysis showed that, compared with laparotomy, laparoscopy had lesser amount of intraoperative bleeding, lower decrease of hemoglobin before and 1-day after operation, shorter time of both waiting for postoperative gas and hospital stay, lower incidence of postoperative complications, longer operation time, and higher incidence of intraoperative complications. Additionally, there were no differences between the 2 groups in the number of pelvic and para-aortic lymph nodes removed during operation, as well as the postoperative recurrence and mortality rates in 3-5 year follow-up.
Conclusion 　Compared with laparotomy, laparoscopy shows lesser amount of intraoperative bleeding, lower decrease of hemoglobin before and 1-day after operation, shorter time of both waiting for postoperative gas and hospital stay, lower incidence of postoperative complications. But laparotomy shows lower incidences of intraoperative complications, and shorter operation time. Both operations are similar in the number of pelvic and para-aortic lymph nodes removed during operation, as well as the postoperative recurrence and mortality rates in 3-5 year follow-up. For quantity limitation and low methodological quality of included studies, this conclusion still needs to be further proved by performing more high-quality and large scale RCTs.

Citation： WANG Di,MA Cailing,YE Yuanzheng,Srijana Sharma. Clinical Effectiveness and Safety of Laparoscopy versus Laparotomy for Endometrial Cancer: A Meta-Analysis. Chinese Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine, 2013, 13(5): 596-604. doi: 10.7507/1672-2531.20130104 Copy