A Prospective Randomized Trial Comparing Vaginal Hysterectomy and Laparoscopic Supracervical Hysterectomy at the Time of Sacrocolpopexy for the Treatment of Uterovaginal Prolapse

Study Procedures:

Study Identification and Recruitment Potential subjects will be identified by members of the Center for Urogynecology & Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Main campus, Hillcrest Hospital and Fairview Hospital. Eligible patients who agree to participate will be provided written informed consent administered by the collaborators listed on this IRB.

Randomization All subjects will be predetermined by their surgeon to undergo a laparoscopic sacrocolpopexy. The participants will then be randomized to either concurrent vaginal hysterectomy or laparoscopic supracervical hysterectomy according to a computer-generated randomization schedule with the use of the SAS statistical software package (SAS Institute, Cary, NC).

Office Interventions All patients will be seen for a preoperative visit and then postoperatively at 6, 12 and 24 months. The 6 month visit will be standard of care, the 12 month and 24 month visit will be a research visit. At each visit, a vaginal exam and a complete Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification (POP-Q) exam will be performed. In addition, patients will be asked to complete the Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory (PFDI-20), Incontinence Severity Index (ISI), Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire (PISQ-12) and Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGII) questionnaires at the pre-operative visit as well as the 6, 12, and 24 month postoperative visits. Completion of these questionnaires is the only additional assessment that is specific to participation in this study and is not usually included as part of the standard care of sacrocolpopexy. It should take no more than 10-15 minutes to complete the questionnaires. The study subjects will not be exposed to any additional risk by participating in this study except for the inconvenience of completing the questionnaires.

Surgical Interventions The laparoscopic portions of the surgery will be performed using four ports: an umbilical port for the laparoscope (either 5 or 10/12mm), two ports (either 5, 8 or 10/12 mm) in the bilateral lower quadrants, and one 5-mm port placed at the level of the umbilicus, lateral to the rectus muscle on either side for retraction.