Modified and bilateral retroperitoneal lymph node dissection for testicular cancer: peri- and postoperative complications and therapeutic outcome.

OBJECTIVE: To characterize surgical invasiveness and morbidity and to verify therapeutic efficacy, we reviewed perioperative and postoperative courses and therapeutic outcomes of patients who underwent retroperitoneal lymph node dissection (RPLND) for testicular germ cell cancers.

METHODS: The study included 31 patients who underwent retroperitoneal lymph node dissection. A modified template was used if retroperitoneal metastasis was limited to the areas below the level of the renal hilus and above the level of the inferior mesenteric artery (IMA). Perioperative and postoperative courses and complications were reviewed as well as therapeutic outcomes.

RESULTS: Overall, 27 perioperative and postoperative complications were observed in 15 patients (48.4%). Superficial surgical site infection and paralytic ileus were seen most frequently. All of them were resolved without special additional treatments; however, patients who underwent retrocrural dissection had a tendency to have severe symptomatic complications such as chylothorax, phrenic nerve palsy and orthostatic hypotension. Antegrade ejaculation was preserved in 94.1% of patients with modified template dissection, whereas no patients with additional dissection below the level of the IMA had the function preserved. One patient (3.2%) developed a postoperative recurrent disease in the retroperitoneum, which was outside the dissection field, as well as in the mediastinum.

CONCLUSIONS: Although RLND had high morbidity, most peri- and postoperative complications were manageable conservatively. Modified template dissection enabled patients to preserve antegrade ejaculation without compromising its therapeutic efficacy, if the disease extension allowed us to use the template.