[Laparoscopic lymphadenectomy. Current indications].

OBJECTIVES

To analyse the experience of our own group and other reference groups with laparoscopic pelvic lymphadenectomy since 1990 regarding different aspects: Technical details, results, complications, and establishment of its current indications for prostate cancer treatment.

METHODS

We report a retrospective statistical analysis of a series of lymphadenectomies over a 10 year period with a total of 202 cases (69 laparoscopic and 133 open surgical) analysing different lymph node invasion risk factors.

RESULTS

Elevated PSA and Gleason resulted in more lymph node infiltration being the cutting point in 40 and 7 respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Laparoscopic lymphadenectomy provides equal diagnostic reliability than the traditional technique. Currently we perform laparoscopic lymphadenectomy in prostate cancer for T3 tumours (independently of PSA or Gleason score) and in < T3 with PSA > or = 40, Gleason > or = 8, and in cases with Gleason 7 and PSA > 20.