title: The mandatory role of groin lymphadenectomy in clinical Stages IB and II vulvar cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the prevalence of inguinofemoral lymph nodes metastases in clinical Stages IB-II vulva cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-two patients with FIGO Stages IB-II FIGO vulva cancer with no clinically and imagistic evidence of nodes metastases were treated in the present clinic. The surgical procedures consisted in radical vulvectomy plus inguinofemoral lym- phadenectomy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The final pathological result was squamous carcinoma in 20 patients, vulva melanoma in one, and carcinosar- coma in one. The prevalence of positive lymph nodes was 45.4%. The median number of harvested lymph nodes was 14.0 per groin (between four and 27). Twelve patients (54.5%) developed some wound complications, but all were resolved. At the present time, 20 patients are alive, but the follow-up period is short for many of them; two patients died of disease.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The prevalence of groin metastases in Stages IB-II vulvar cancer is high. A thorough inguino-femoral dissection seems necessary, despite the high incidence of wound complications.
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Căpîlna
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Szabo
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Nicolau
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Daniilidis
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Neagoe
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Moldovan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006119:Groin / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D014846:Vulvar Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*