Sparing of saphenous vein during inguinal lymphadenectomy for vulval malignancies

This work was set out to investigate the effect of saphenous vein preservation during inguinal lymphadenectomy for patients with vulval malignancies.

64 patients with vulval malignancies were allocated into two groups depending on their clinical stages, with one of them (31 patients included) being subjected to sparing of saphenous vein and the other to saphenous vein ligated surgery while treated with inguinal lymphadenectomy. The operative time, blood loss, 5-year survival rate, short- and long-term postoperative complications, 5-year survival rate and groin recurrence were selected as the monitored parameters, through which the above two groups were compared with each other using t test, chi2 and life table analysis.

(1) The median operative time for bilateral inguinal lymphadenectomy was 155 min (130-170 min) in the sparing group, compared to 140 min (120-170 min) in the excision group (P>0.05). The median intraoperative blood loss was 295 mL (100-450 mL) in the sparing group, and 270 mL (150-390 mL) in the excision group (P>0.05). (2) Short-term lower extremity lymphedema occurred with 27 patients (43.5%) in the sparing group and 44 patients (66.7%) in the excision group (P<0.01). Still, short-term lower extremity phlebitis was observed with 7 patients (11.3%) in the sparing group while 17 developed phlebitis (25.8%) in the excision group (P<0.05). However, there was no statistical difference in postoperative fever, acute cellulites, seroma, or lymphocyst formation. (3) Long-term complication occurrence rate decreased by about 50% in patients subjected to saphenous vein sparing surgery compared with those to ligated surgery, while there was no remarkable difference between two groups in the occurrence rates of phlebitis and deep venous thrombosis (P>0.05). (4) The overall 5-year survival rate was 67.3%, with 66.7% and 68.0% for the excision group and the sparing group, respectively (P>0.05).

The application of saphenous vein preservation technique during inguinal lymphadenectomy for patients with vulval malignancies could significantly decrease the occurrence rate of postoperative complications without compromising outcomes and should be widely put into clinical practice.