[Lymphographic evaluation of cervico-uterine carcinoma (author's transl)]

Bilateral pedial lymphography is a technique which has already been long employed and which had aroused great hopes in the detection of metastatic node involvement. The method has nevertheless failed to form an invariable part of the pretherapeutic assessment of cervico-uterine carcinomas. This attitude may be easily explained by the difficulties encountered in the interpretation of lymphographies as indicated in the first publications. New data nevertheless have made it possible to refine the method. Whilst false negatives remain inevitable in almost half the cases with histological evidence of involvement, false positives may be reduced to a minimum by very strict criteria of interpretation. Lymphography, a harmless technique, can then provide valuable information which enables the surgeon to confirm the success of his lymph node dissection and the radiotherapist to define areas requiring treatment. It is of major prognostic value. It may be used to guide transparietal lymph node biopsies and secondary detect lumbo-aortic nodes.