Techniques for Apical Prolapse Management in Transvaginal Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery High Uterosacral Ligament Suspension

Study Objective: To demonstrate practical tips and tricks for successful use of the transvaginal natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) technique for performing high uterosacral ligament suspension (HUS). Design: Stepwise demonstration with narrated video footage (Canadian Task Force classification III). Setting: An academic tertiary care hospital. Interventions: A 58-year-old G2P2, NSVDx2 with stage III anterior vaginal prolapse, stage II uterine prolapse, and posterior vaginal prolapse. The preoperative vaginal length was 7-cm. Transvaginal NOTES is a creative yet difficult approach that averts an abdominal incision while simultaneously providing enhanced visualization in comparison with traditional vaginal surgery [1]. However, this approach may be technically challenging. After performing transvaginal hysterectomy and anterior repair, the single-site port was placed, and bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy was subsequently performed. The following key techniques were used to perform NOTES-HUS: tagging the sutures for bilateral uterosacral ligament before single-site port placement, identifying the ischial spine and ureters, pulling the tagged uterosacral ligament suture to assist in locating the high uterosacral ligament, grasping and lifting the uterosacral ligament while placing a suture, and giving the suture a tug after placement to confirm the correct location [2–4]. The procedure was successfully performed in approximately 160 minutes with a postoperative vaginal length of 5-cm. Postoperative pelvic organ prolapse quantification was stage 0. Conclusion: Transvaginal NOTES-HUS is a feasible and practical technique for apical vaginal prolapse. There is an increased cost to using laparoscopically assisted NOTES surgery as well as a risk of pneumoperitoneum. Applying the tips and tricks presented here, such as tagging the uterosacral ligament before port placement and so on, the challenging transvaginal NOTES-HUS technique can be performed efficiently and safely. © 2020 AAGL