They utilized a testicular cancer database and evaluated 102 patients who underwent either primary or post-chemotherapy extraperitoneal RPLND from 2010-2017. They evaluated perioperative variables including estimated blood loss, blood transfusions, ability to perform nerve-sparing, concomitant intraabdominal procedures, nodal size, nodal yield, hospital length of stay, postoperative ejaculatory function, and 90-day complication rate.
They found that 30 patients underwent primary extraperitoneal RPLND while 72 underwent post-chemotherapy extraperitoneal RPLND. The median length of stay for patients was 3 days. 81% of patients underwent nerve-sparing procedures. 65% of patients had documented ejaculatory function post-operatively. 8% of patients had a complication within 90 days post-operatively. The median length of follow-up time was 590 days. Other surgical outcome data is available in Table 1.
Burg concluded that midline extraperitoneal RPLND is a safe and effective procedure. They showed that the majority of patients have preserved ejaculatory function and that their length of stay and complication rates are comparable to minimally-invasive RPLND.
Presented by: Madeline Burg, MD Candidate, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
Written by: Brian Kadow, MD. Society of Urologic Oncology Fellow, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA. @btkmduro at American Urological Association's 2019 Annual Meeting (AUA 2019), May 3 – 6, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois