Postoperative Bladder Testing After Total Laparoscopic Hysterectomy

In recent years, a paradigm shift from traditional perioperative care models to "Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS)" has taken place across a wide range of surgical subspecialties including minimally-invasive gynecologic surgery. Many gynecologic procedures that once required hospital admission are now being performed as outpatient procedures. To optimize same-day discharge through the ERAS pathways, protocols call for early removal of urinary catheters following gynecologic surgery. Studies in urogynecologic literature have shown that a backfill-assisted voiding trial is superior to a spontaneous voiding trial in patients undergoing transvaginal surgery. However, there are limited studies published in literature focusing on minimally invasive gynecologic procedures, specifically laparoscopic hysterectomies. A successful spontaneous voiding trial is usually a postoperative criteria prior to discharge after same-day total laparoscopic hysterectomy. Through this randomized controlled trial, the investigators aim to compare two techniques of postoperative bladder testing for patients undergoing same-day total laparoscopic hysterectomy. This study would provide valuable data on improved measures for predicting voiding efficiency, time to first void, and time to discharge for patients undergoing same-day total laparoscopic hysterectomies. Ultimately, the investigators predict that backfilling the bladder immediately postoperatively, prior to removal of the foley catheter, will hasten time to first spontaneous void and reduce the amount of time spent in the recovery room.