Robot assisted laparoscopic transperitoneal para-aortic lymphadenectomy in the management of advanced cervical carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Adequate staging of advanced cervical cancer is essential in order to optimally treat the patient. FIGO clinical staging, imaging techniques such as CT scan, MRI and PET sometimes underestimate the extension of tumors. The presence of para-aortic lymph node metastases in advanced cervical cancer identifies patients with poor prognosis who need to be treated aggressively. Laparoscopic para-aortic lymph node dissection is now proposed as a diagnostic tool in many guidelines. We evaluated the feasibility and safety of a robot assisted laparoscopic transperitoneal approach to para-aortic lymph node dissection.


METHODS
Eight patients with advanced cervical carcinoma who were eligible for primary pelvic radiotherapy combined with concurrent cisplatin chemotherapy or pelvic exenteration underwent a pre-treatment robot assisted transperitoneal laparoscopic para-aortic lymphadenectomy.


RESULTS
We isolated from 1 to 38 para-aortic nodes per patient and had one para-aortic node positive patient who was treated with extended doses of pelvic radiotherapy. We did not encounter any major complications and post-operative morbidity was low.


CONCLUSIONS
Robot assisted transperitoneal laparoscopic para-aortic lymphadenectomy is feasible and provides the surgeon with greater precision than classical laparoscopy. Larger prospective multicentric trials are needed to validate the generalised usefulness of this technique.
Fastrez
Maxime
M
Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, St Pierre University Hospital, Rue Haute 322, 1000 Brussels, Belgium. maxime_fastrez@stpierre-bru.be
Vandromme
Jean
J
George
Pascale
P
Rozenberg
Serge
S
Degueldre
Michel
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D008197:Lymph Node Excision / Q000379:methods*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012371:Robotics / Q000379:methods*; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*