Modified Technique of Radical Inguinal Lymphadenectomy For Penile Carcinoma: Morbidity and Outcome
Modified Technique of Radical Inguinal Lymphadenectomy For Penile Carcinoma: Morbidity and Outcome
Modified Technique of Radical Inguinal Lymphadenectomy For Penile Carcinoma: Morbidity and Outcome
Purpose: Classic radical inguinal lymphadenectomy is associated with significant morbidity. Modified inguinal lymphadenectomy has been used to decrease
the complication rate but it may compromise the oncological effect and depends
on the use of intraoperative frozen sections, which may be inaccurate. We modified the technique of radical inguinal lymphadenectomy to decrease postoperative complications without compromising oncological effectiveness.
Materials and Methods: We performed 150 modified radical inguinal dissections
in 75 patients with penile carcinoma from February 1999 to September 2008.
Patients underwent modified radical inguinal dissection characterized by an
S-shaped incision, precisely separating layers using an anatomical landmark and
preserving the fascia lata. The boundaries of dissection are the same as those of
radical inguinal lymphadenectomy. Survival and morbidity data were retrospectively analyzed, and survival probabilities were calculated.
Results: Followup ranged from 12 to 113 months. Overall 3-year survival was
92%, and for N0, N1, N2 and N3 disease it was 100%, 100%, 85% and 57.1%,
respectively. A total of 37 complications occurred including wound infection
(1.4%), skin necrosis (4.7%), lymphedema (13.9%), seroma (2.0%), lymphocele
(2.0%) and deep venous thrombosis (0.7%).
Conclusions: Morbidity related to groin dissection in patients with penile carcinoma can be decreased and oncological effectiveness can be preserved using this
modified inguinal dissection technique.
Key Words: lymph node excision, lymph nodes, penile neoplasms, morbidity
IN patients with penile cancer lymph
node metastasis is the most important variable affecting survival.1 The
radical inguinal LAD described by
Daseler et al is considered the most
extensive approach to groin dissection
for penile carcinoma.2 However, this
procedure is associated with high
morbidity.1,3 To reduce morbidity Catalona proposed a modified inguinal
LAD in which the lateral and caudal
dimensions of the dissection were decreased.4 The modified inguinal LAD
is associated with less morbidity than
0022-5347/10/1842-0001/0
THE JOURNAL OF UROLOGY
2010 by AMERICAN UROLOGICAL ASSOCIATION EDUCATION
AND
RESEARCH, INC.
Abbreviations
and Acronyms
FA femoral artery
FNAC fine needle aspiration
cytology
FV femoral vein
LAD lymphadenectomy
SV saphenous vein
Submitted for publication November 9, 2009.
Nothing to disclose.
* Equal study contribution.
Correspondence: Department of Urology,
Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center and
State Key Laboratory of Oncology in Southern
China, Guangzhou 510060, P.R. China (telephone: 86-20-8734-3309; FAX: 86-20-87343656; e-mail: hanhui1967@sina.com or zhoufj@
mail.sysu.edu.cn).
www.jurology.com
Operative Indications
Treatment protocols were discussed with the patient and
the importance of rigorous followup was emphasized. Considering that a surveillance program was unsuitable for
them, most of the patients consented to inguinal LAD, of
whom 75 underwent modified radical inguinal LAD. Of
the 75 patients 15 were referred from other hospitals after
treatment of the primary lesion and required only lymphadenectomy. The other patients underwent simultaneous
penectomy and lymphadenectomy. Adjuvant radiation
therapy was given in cases of pN2 and pN3 disease. All
procedures were performed by 2 surgeons (FJZ and HH).
Treatment
The boundaries of dissection were the apex of the femoral
triangle distally, the sartorius muscle laterally, the adductor longus muscle medially and the inguinal ligament
superiorly. The floor of the dissection was above the fascia
lata. A 12 cm, S-shaped incision was made beginning 2 cm
medial to the anterior superior iliac spine. The incision
proceeded distally through the middle of the groin crease,
then vertically along the surface projection of the FA, and
ended 3.5 cm inferior and medial to the fossa ovalis (fig. 1).
The skin was incised until a white, semihyaline membranous layer of fibrous tissue was identified (fig. 2, a). The
skin flaps were separated in this plane and left covered by
the superficial layer of Campers fascia (fig. 2, b). Next the
tissues between the superficial layer of Campers fascia
and fascia lata were dissected, including the superficial
inguinal lymphatic tissues (fig. 2, c). All subcutaneous
lymphatics were ligated at the periphery of the dissection.
The SV was preserved (fig. 3, a). The cribriform fascia
near the femoral canal was divided, and the deep inguinal
lymph nodes, lying in the fossa ovalis medial to the FV,
were dissected from the inguinal ligament to distal to the
fossa ovalis (fig. 3, b). The posterior and lateral aspects of
the femoral vessels and femoral nerve were not cleared.
The fascia lata was preserved completely (fig. 3, c) and
sutured to the subcutaneous tissue (fig. 3, d). In this
technique the transposition of the sartorius muscle is
eliminated. A suction drainage was placed subcutaneously
and maintained until drainage was less than 10 ml daily
for 2 consecutive days.
F1
F2
F3
Patients
Between February 1999 and September 2008 a total of 115
Chinese patients were treated for penile carcinoma. Mean
patient age was 51.5 years (range 19 to 79). Clinical staging consisted of primary tumor evaluation, inguinal palpation to assess the presence or absence of identifiable
lymph nodes, and computerized tomography of the chest,
abdomen and pelvis. All cases were M0 disease. Radical
inguinal LAD was performed in 9 patients and modified
inguinal LAD was performed in 7, while 20 only consented
to treatment of the primary lesion. Fixed inguinal lymph
nodes were present in 2 patients who were treated with
only systemic chemotherapy. Patients lost to followup
were excluded from the analysis and 2 of these were in the
modified radical inguinal LAD group. Thus, a total of 75
patients were included in this study, and had disease
classified according to the 2002 TNM classification as
cN0 27 (36%), cN118 (24%) and cN230 (40%).
C
O
L
O
R
Figure 1. a, S-shaped incision markings. SCIA, superficial circumflex iliac artery. SEPA, superficial external pudendal artery.
SEA, superficial epigastric artery. ASIS, anterior superior iliac
spine. PTPB, pubic tubercle of pubic bone. b, S-shaped surgical
incision.
C
O
L
O
R
C
O
L
O
R
Figure 2. a, skin was incised until white, semihyaline membranous layer of fibrous tissue was identified. b, arrows indicate white,
semihyaline, membranate layer of fibrous tissue. Skin flaps were separated in plane. c, tissues between superficial layer of Campers
fascia and fascia lata were dissected. 1, skin and subcutaneous tissue. 2, superfascial layer of Campers fascia. 3, anatomical landmark.
4, deep layer of Campers fascia. 5, fascia lata. 6, muscle of thigh.
C
O
L
O
R
C
O
L
O
R
Figure 3. a, SV was preserved. b, cribriform fascia near femoral canal was divided. OF, oval fossa. II, inguinal ligament. SC, spermatic
cord. c, fascia lata was preserved completely. 1, adductor longus muscles. 2, sartorius muscle. 3, fossa ovalis. 4, fascia lata. d, fascia
lata was sutured to subcutaneous tissue.
pN0
pN1
75
36
12
39
28
8
24
12
0
6
4
2
8
8 (1*)
4 (2*)
1
4 (1*)
2 (2*)
38.5
57.1
100
28
29
12
6
9
2
2
0
3
2
18
14
2
2
1
1
0
0
0
0
5
6
1
0
2
1
1
0
0
0
5
8
6 (2*)
1 (1*)
3
0
1*
0
1*
1*
0
1
3 (1*)
3 (2*)
3
0
0
0
2*
1*
35.7
51.7
83.3
66.7
90.7
88.0
88.0
97.2
97.2
97.2
96.0
93.3
92.0
100
100
100
20
91.7
83.3
83.3
100
100
100
pN2
pN3
7
90.0
85.0
85.0
57.1
57.1
57.1
95.0
90.0
85.0
71.4
57.1
57.1
month, seroma or lymphocele formation not requiring aspiration, wound infection without sepsis and minimal skin
necrosis requiring no therapy. All the patients were advised to follow up every 3 to 6 months in the first 2 years
and then once yearly. Statistical analysis was performed
with SPSS (v15.0) and the Kaplan-Meier technique was
used to evaluate survival probabilities.
RESULTS
T1
Surgical Outcomes
In this population of 75 patients 150 modified radical inguinal dissections were performed and the
data are presented in table 1. The average number
of lymph nodes obtained was 12.6 per side with an
average of 2.1 deep lymph nodes per side. There
were 12, 20 and 7 patients with stage pN1, pN2 and
pN3 disease, respectively. Of the 48 patients with
palpable lymph nodes 30 (62.5%) had positive nodes
on subsequent histological examination. In the 27
patients with nonpalpable nodes on clinical examination 9 (33.3%) had positive nodal disease.
Followup and Survival
Median followup was 51 months (range 12 to 113).
At followup 69 patients survived and 6 died of the
disease. There were 9 recurrences observed during
followup. Mean time to recurrence after LAD was 9
months (range 3 to 15) and there was no inguinal
recurrence in this series. The locations of recurrence
7 (4.7)
16 (10.6)
3 (2.0)
2 (1.4)
3 (2.0)
5 (3.3)
1 (0.7)
T2
DISCUSSION
T3
Although radical inguinal LAD has proven therapeutic value, the associated high morbidity limits its
use. The modified inguinal LAD is associated with
lower morbidity. However, the oncological effect is
unreliable.7,8,15 With these considerations we modified the radical inguinal LAD to reduce the associated morbidity yet maintain the therapeutic effectiveness.
Adequate dissection boundaries are essential for
attaining excellent disease control. In our series all
recurrence was outside the inguinal region. The
overall 3-year survival in our series was 92% with
84.6% survival for node positive disease. In a recent
series 100 cases of penile cancer were managed according to the European Association of Urology
guidelines, with an overall cancer 3-year survival
rate of 92% and 81% for node positive disease, outcomes similar to ours.16 We believe this satisfactory
long-term survival is due to the radical boundaries
of dissection. Moreover node count is an important
surrogate marker for the quality of lymph node dissection. In our series the average number of lymph
nodes was 12.6 per side with 2.1 deep lymph nodes,
which is comparable with the number reported in
previous studies.17,18
Moreover the morbidity in our series was decreased to a level comparable to that of the modified
inguinal LAD, and was significantly lower than that
of radical inguinal LAD (table 3).4 6,15,19 23 Compared with most studies of radical inguinal LAD,
infection, skin necrosis, seroma and lymphocele
rates were lower in our series while the rate of
lymphedema was comparable. Thus, we considered
that the decreased complication rate in our study is
related to the S-shaped incision, dissection in definite anatomical planes, preservation of the greater
SV, complete preservation of the fascia lata and
leaving the sartorius muscle in place.
Table 3. Reported morbidity of modified and radical inguinal LAD
References
Modified groups:
Catalona4
Parra20
Coblentz and Theodorescu21
Bevan-Thomas et al5
Bouchot et al6
dAncona et al15
Standard groups:
Ravi19
Ayyappan et al18
Bevan-Thomas et al5
Bouchot et al6
Nelson et al22
dAncona et al15
Spiess et al23
Present series
No. LAD
% Infection
% Skin Necrosis
% Lymphedema
% Seroma
% Lymphocele
12
24
22
66
118
42
0
0
4.5
9.1
0.8
0
8.3
0
4.5
4.5
2.5
0
100
8.3
36.4
21.2
3.4
0
0
0
0
12.1
2.5
26.3
8.3
4.2
22.7
0
0
10.5
405
135
40
58
80
8
86
150
16.3
70
15
6.9
7.5
0
9
1.4
62
36
12.5
12
10
37.5
11
4.7
26.7
57
25
22.4
15
37.5
17
13.9
6.9
12
7.5
13.8
0
37.5
0
2.0
9
87
5
5.2
15
12.5
2
2.0
branches of the inferior epigastric, external pudendal and circumflex iliac arteries, which run parallel
to the inguinal ligament. In theory the S-shaped
skin incision minimally damages these arteries and
subsequently preserves the blood supply of the adjacent vascular territories of the skin flap. Moreover
tension on the skin sutures is reduced, which potentially results in better healing. Although the Sshaped incision has been reported to be associated
with a significant rate of skin flap necrosis, in our
study the rate of skin flap necrosis was comparable
to that of other incisions.4,10
In addition, we identified a white, semihyaline,
membranous layer of fibrous tissue between the 2
layers of Campers fascia, an anatomical landmark
that locates the correct cleavage plane to dissect the
skin flaps. Jacobellis pointed out that dissecting the
skin flaps in the correct plane is critical in decreasing the complication rate.17 However, the method of
identifying the correct cleavage plane remains unclear. Campers fascia of the groin region is composed of 2 layers. The subdermal plexus is primarily
distributed in the superficial layer and the superficial lymph nodes only reside in the deep layer. The
correct dissection plane is between the 2 layers.
Guided by the layer of white fibrous tissue as a
landmark, dissection of the skin flaps causes minimal disruption of blood vessels and the superficial
lymphatic tissue can be completely removed. The
occurrence of skin necrosis (4.7%) and wound dehiscence was low in our series. If the skin flap is too
thin the subdermal plexus will be damaged and the
arterial supply will be disrupted, leading to ischemia and skin necrosis. The idea that skin flaps
should be preserved deep to Scarpas fascia or left
thicker has been frequently mentioned. Actually
Scarpas fascia is fused to the fascia lata of the thigh
1 cm below the inguinal ligament. A thicker skin
flap inevitably contains tissue of the deep layer of
Campers fascia, which may harbor metastatic nodes
CONCLUSIONS
Our modified surgical technique of radical LAD,
characterized by an S-shaped incision, precise separation of layers using a membranate anatomical
landmark and preservation of the fascia lata, decreases groin dissection related complications without jeopardizing oncological effectiveness.
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