Early and Late Complications after Inguinofemoral Lymphadenectomy for Vulvar Cancer.

BACKGROUND: We aimed to determine the frequency of early and late complications following groin surgery for vulvar cancer and analyze possible risk factors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included 99 women who underwent for vulvar cancer. The early (≤1 month) complications were wound infection, breakdown and lymphocyst and late (>1 month) complications were lower limb lymphedema, incontinence and erysipelas. The risk factors for developing each of the complications were analyzed with regression analysis.

RESULTS: In the entire cohort, 29 (29.3%) women experienced early and 12 (12.1%) had late complications. Wound complications including infection and breakdown were the leading early complications (23.2%). In the multivariate analysis, both obesity (body mass index≥30 kg/m2) and advanced age (≥65 years) were found as independent predictive factors for early complications. Obese women of advanced age had 6.32 times more risk of experiencing any of the early complications, when compared to non-obese and young women (55.6% vs 8.7%). The most common late complication was lower limb lymphedema (10.1%) that was more frequently seen in young women. However, neither age nor lymph node count were significantly associated with the occurrence of lower limb lymphedema.

CONCLUSIONS: More than 40% of the women suffered from postoperative complications after inguinofemoral lymphadenectomy in the current study. While advanced age and obesity were the significant predictors for any of the early complications, there was no identified risk factor for lower limb lymphedema.