Morbidity of diaphragmatic surgery for advanced ovarian cancer: retrospective study of 148 cases

Treatment of Advanced Ovarian Cancer (AOC) includes surgery with complete cytoreduction, one of the strongest prognostic factors. To achieve complete cytoreduction, diaphragmatic surgery is often required. There is currently a lack of information in the literature regarding the morbidity and impact of this type of surgery. The aim of this study is to report specific pulmonary morbidity and overall morbidity associated with diaphragmatic surgery in patients with AOC.

We conducted a multicentric (6 centres), retrospective study that included 148 patients operated on between 2004 and 2008. Patient characteristics, surgical course and postoperative complications were collected.

The complete cytoreduction rate was 84%. The surgery was categorised by timing as initial, interval or recurrence surgery in 38%, 51% and 11% of patients, respectively. In 69% of patients, one or more postoperative complications occurred: pulmonary complication (42%), digestive fistula (7%) or lymphocyst (18%). The pulmonary complications were pleural effusion (37%), pulmonary embolism (5%), pneumothorax (4%) and pulmonary infection (2%). These complications required revision surgery, pleural evacuation, or lymphocyst evacuation in 13%, 14%, and 11% of the cases, respectively. Postoperative mortality was 3%. Risk factors for pulmonary complications were the addition of extensive upper surgery to the diaphragmatic surgery (p = 0.014) and the size of the diaphragmatic resection (p = 0.012).

Diaphragmatic surgery achieved complete removal of the tumour but resulted in pulmonary complications in addition to complications of radical surgery.