Early and late morbidity of radical hysterectomy with lymphadenectomy in early-stage cervical cancer: A prospective multicentric cohort of 232 patients.

Abstract

e17007 Background: The aim of this study was to assess the early and late post-operative morbidity of patients who have undergone a radical hysterectomy (RH) for early-stage cervical cancer. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the data of two prospective trials on sentinel node biopsy for cervical cancer (SENTICOL I & II). Patients underwent a radical hysterectomy for early-stage cervical cancer between January 2005 and March 2012 in 23 French oncologic centers. Results: A total of 412 patients were enrolled and 284 had a radical hysterectomy. Data were complete for 232 patients: 115 by laparoscopic-assisted vaginal way, 80 patients by total laparoscopic way, 9 patients by total vaginal way, 22 patients by laparotomy and 6 patients by robot-assisted way. The median age was 44 years (range = 25-85 years). 89.6 % of patients had a stage IB1 disease. 72.4% were epidermoid carcinoma and 24.6% adenocarcinoma. Eighty-one patients (35%) had only a sentinel lymph node biopsy and 151 patients (65%) had an additional pelvic lymphadenectomy. There were 45 cases of urinary infections (19.4%), 17 cases of dysuria (7.3%), 10 cases of urinary incontinence (4.3%), and 6 cases of ureteral or vesical fistula (2.6%). The genito-femoral nerve was injured in 25 cases (10.7%) and the obturator nerve was injured in 22 cases (9.5%). There were 38 cases of limb lymphedema (16.3%) and 14 cases of pelvic lymphocyst (6%). Conclusions: These complications rates are similar with those found in the current literature. Urinary infections and limb lymphedema are the main complications of RH. The functional outcomes could be improved by applying nerve-sparing techniques. [Table: see text]