Perioperative Outcomes of Surgical Staging in Patients With Early-stage Endometrial Carcinoma: Comparison Between Laparoscopy and Laparotomy in a Low-resource Setting

Endometrial cancer is the most common gynecologic malignancy in developed countries, with increasing incidence related to obesity, aging, and metabolic disorders. Most patients present with early-stage disease confined to the uterus, making surgical staging the cornerstone of treatment. Standard management includes total hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and pelvic lymph node assessment when indicated for accurate staging and risk stratification . Minimally invasive surgery (MIS), particularly laparoscopy, has increasingly replaced laparotomy in the surgical staging of endometrial cancer because of its perioperative advantages. Previous studies demonstrated that laparoscopic surgery is associated with reduced blood loss, fewer postoperative complications, shorter hospital stay, and faster return to normal activity while maintaining comparable oncologic outcomes to open surgery. Recently, greater emphasis has been placed on patient-centered outcomes and enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) pathways. Early postoperative recovery is considered an important indicator of surgical quality and functional rehabilitation. Time to ambulation is a simple and clinically relevant marker of recovery, as delayed mobilization is associated with prolonged hospitalization and increased postoperative morbidity. Faster recovery may also facilitate earlier initiation of adjuvant therapy when indicated. Additionally, discrepancies between preoperative curettage pathology and final histopathology may alter risk stratification and postoperative management. Despite strong evidence supporting laparoscopy, most data originate from high-resource settings with advanced ERAS systems. Evidence from low-resource settings remains limited, particularly regarding functional recovery metrics, cost-effectiveness, and real-world delays in adjuvant therapy. Furthermore, few randomized trials have incorporated patient-reported recovery outcomes alongside oncologic endpoints.Therefore, this study aims to compare laparoscopic and open surgical staging for early-stage endometrial cancer regarding early postoperative recovery, perioperative outcomes, postoperative morbidity, delay in initiation of adjuvant therapy, and concordance between preoperative and final histopathological findings.