The mandatory role of groin lymphadenectomy in clinical Stages IB and II vulvar cancer.

PURPOSE OF INVESTIGATION: To analyze the prevalence of inguinofemoral lymph nodes metastases in clinical Stages IB-II vulva cancer.

MATERIALS AND 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.

CONCLUSION: 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.