This study assessed the necessity of surgical re-staging in women with borderline ovarian tumors (BOTs) and evaluated the impact of complete surgical staging, lymphadenectomy, and omentectomy on disease recurrence and survival.We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients with BOTs. A total of 901 patients were eligible for inclusion in the study, and we evaluated some of the variables and clinical/surgical characteristics of the cases. The effects of the type of surgical procedure, surgical staging, and complete or incomplete staging on recurrence were calculated. The rates of disease-free survival, overall survival, and recurrence were compared according to complete surgical staging. A Cox regression analysis was performed to identify potential prognostic factors, and survival curves were constructed using the Kaplan-Meier method.The overall recurrence rate was 13.9%, and recurrence was comparable between the complete surgical staging group and the incomplete groups (P>0.05). The performance of complete surgical staging did not show an effect on long-term survival, and complete surgical staging, omentectomy, and lymphadenectomy had no effect on recurrence. In multivariate analyses, only radical surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy were risk factors for the recurrence of BOTs. Furthermore, we found that omentectomy led to a relatively low recurrence rate in patients with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) stage > I (P=0.022).Our results suggest that complete surgical staging should be considered a standard treatment for patients with advanced stage BOTs but not for those at FIGO stage I. It might be safe to reduce the scope of surgical procedures in patients with early-stage BOTs. However, it is not necessary to perform re-staging operations for BOTs with a macroscopically normal extra-ovarian appearance.© 2023. Huazhong University of Science and Technology.