Extended pelvic lymph node dissection: before or after radical cystectomy? A multicenter study of the Turkish society of urooncology

Lymphadenectomy before and after radical cystectomy: does this affect the radicality? A prospective randomized comparative study

PURPOSE

To compare the oncological outcome of performing ePLND before or after RC in 200 patients in a prospective randomized manner.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

From January 2014 to December 2019, 200 patients with T2-T3b N0M0 BCa were included in the current study after signing an informed consent. Patients were divided into two groups, 100 in each one. Group I underwent ePLND before RC, whereas group II underwent ePLND after RC. Postoperative evaluation included clinical, laboratory, and radiographic studies.

RESULTS

Patients' characteristics were comparable between both groups. The mean operative time excluding that of urinary diversion was significantly shorter in group II than in group I (p = 0.01). The mean number of LNs removed was 25 ± 6 in group I and 32 ± 8 in group II (p = 0.141). Intraoperative complications occurred in four patients in the form of external iliac artery and vein injury [two in each group (p = 0. 245)]. Postoperative complications were comparable between both groups with no statistically significant difference (p = 0.375). Oncological failure occurred in 28 patients [16 (17.6%) in group I and 12 (22%) in group II (p = 0.389)].

CONCLUSIONS

EPLND before and after RC has comparable oncological outcomes. The stage of the disease, the time since the first diagnosis till RC and the surgeon experience in performing meticulous ePLND are more important. In absence of oncological superiority, the timing of ePLND should be judged according to the patient-related factors to facilitate safe RC with minimal morbidity.

Timing of lymphadenectomy during robot-assisted radical cystectomy: before or after cystectomy? Fifteen cases with totally intracorporeal urinary diversions

Introduction

Many publications detail the level and number of lymphadenectomies, whereas the timing of pelvic lymph node dissection (PLND) is infrequently discussed in the robot-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC) series.

Aim

To determine the effects of performing PLND before or after cystectomy in totally intracorporeal RARC on operative outcomes.

Material and methods

A total of 15 patients included in the study underwent RARC and intracorporeal orthotopic neobladder. Of these, 8 patients underwent PLND before cystectomy (group 1), whereas 7 underwent PLND after cystectomy (group 2). Demographic information, intraoperative data, and post-operative outcomes were recorded for each patient.

Results

The mean ± SD age was 61.87 ±6.76 years. Overall mean operation time (OT) was 537.33 ±63.07 min. The mean EBL and hospitalization time were 322.33 ±69.92 ml and 13.87 ±5.2 days. The number of LN removed was 23.75 ±3.454 for group 1 and 13.71 ±6.873 for group 2 (p = 0.007). The postoperative pathological stages were: pT2(5), pT3(2), pT4(1) for group 1, pT2(4), pT3(2), pT4(1) for group 2. Surgical margins were negative in all patient. Overall complications occurred in 7 (46.6%) patients. Only the number of LN removed was statistically significant in favor of group 1 (p = 0.007). Mean follow-up was 15.87 months.

Conclusions

Our initial experience with performing extended PLND (ePLND) before or after cystectomy in totally intracorporeal RARC appears to be favorable, with similar oncological results and acceptable complication rates. However, although the number of cases is too low for statistical evaluation, it seems to be advantageous to perform ePLND before cystectomy in terms of LN number and operation time.