Potential strategies for prevention of tumor spillage in minimally invasive radical hysterectomy.

OBJECTIVE: The publication of a prospective [1] and several retrospective [2,3] studies describing a worse prognosis in patients affected with early-stage cervical cancer who underwent a minimally invasive radical hysterectomy has raised a high concern in what measures should be undertaken in order to revert these results. Potential strategies [4] to prevent tumor spillage have been previously proposed. METHODS: In this video, we describe nine strategies that should be addressed in future trials regarding this procedure. RESULTS: These strategies are: 1. Fallopian tubes should be coagulated prior to start the surgery. 2. All sentinel lymph nodes and lymphadenectomy specimens should be obtained without lymph nodes fragmentation. 3. All surgical specimens should be extracted within a containment bag. 4. Uterine manipulators must never be used. 5. Prior to vaginal section, a closed knotted ligature should be placed around the vagina, proximal to the section line, and the remaining vaginal cavity profusely washed. 6. Once the vagina is opened, the surgical specimen should be extracted vaginally within a specimen retrieval bag. 7. After surgery, the pelvic cavity is profusely washed with physiological serum, and the vagina should be washed with iodopovidone diluted to 10% [5]. 8. Port-site metastasis prevention measures should be performed. 9. Every action made to prevent tumor spillage should be recorded in the surgical report. CONCLUSION: As there is a biological rationale in these measures that would prevent tumor spillage and seeding, there is a need of prospectively exploring them within appropriate studies in order to determine their own oncological outcome.

PROFAST: A randomised trial implementing enhanced recovery after surgery for highcomplexity advanced ovarian cancer surgery.

BACKGROUND: Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) programs include multiple perioperative elements designed to achieve early recovery after surgery and a shorter length of stay (LOS) in hospital. The PROFAST trial aimed to expand the evidence base for implementing ERAS in advanced gynaecologic oncology surgery. METHODS: This prospective, interventional randomised clinical trial enrolled women undergoing surgery for either suspected or diagnosed advanced ovarian cancer, at a reference hospital in gynaecologic oncology in Barcelona (Spain) and who were treated after either an ERAS protocol or conventional management (CM) protocol. All enrolled women who underwent cytoreductive surgery were included in the primary analysis. The primary outcome was reduction in LOS, and secondary outcomes were incidence and type of intraoperative and postoperative complications, rate of readmission and mortality within a 30-d follow-up period. This trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02172638. FINDINGS: From June 2014 to March 2018, 110 women were recruited, of which eleven were excluded. The ERAS group comprised 50 patients, and the CM group, 49 patients. Both groups were comparable with respect to baseline characteristics and complexity of the cytoreductive surgery, with an overall medium/high Aletti surgical complexity score of 7.4. Overall compliance to the ERAS protocol was 92%. As compared with the patients in the CM group, patients in the ERAS group had a decreased median of LOS of two days (7 versus 9 days; p = 0.0099) and a decreased rate of readmission (6% versus 20%, p = 0.0334). No further significant differences were detected with respect to incidence of intraoperative or postoperative complications, severe (Clavien-Dindo grade IIIB-IV) complications, Comprehensive Complication Index, reoperation during primary stay, or mortality. INTERPRETATION: Patients with advanced ovarian cancer in the ERAS program had a decreased LOS and decreased rate of readmission as compared with those in CM, with no increased morbidity or mortality. This study provides important evidence for the benefits of ERAS management even for gynaecologic surgeries of medium/high complexity and suggests that ERAS should be a standard practice for cytoreductive surgeries for peritoneal carcinomatosis.

A giant superinfected uterine angioleiomyoma with distant septic metastases: an extremely rare presentation of a benign process and a systematic review of the literature.

PURPOSE: Uterine angioleiomyoma is a rare type of leiomyoma variant and there are few cases reported in the literature. The definitive diagnosis is usually obtained only after the histopathologic examination because there are no specific imaging criteria for this disease. The objective of this article is to review published cases about this clinical condition. METHODS: We report a case of giant angioleiomyoma superinfected by S. agalactiae with the development of latero-cervical distant metastasis in a premenopausal woman. Firstly, the case herein reported was orientated as an endometrial stroma sarcoma in the peri-operative histologic examination by frozen sections. It was treated with laparotomic total hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, inframesocolic omentectomy and pelvic and paraaortic lymph node dissection. Postoperative definitive anatomopathological analyses using a proper immunohistochemical panel revealed a case of uterine angioleiomyoma. We also review other case reports published about this clinical condition. RESULTS: We present the first case reported in the literature, in our knowledge, of a giant angioleiomyoma superinfected by S. agalactiae with the development of distant septic metastases. Immunohistochemistry permitted the definitive diagnosis of angioleiomyoma. Treatments previously reported are hysterectomy or tumor resection and any patient recurred. CONCLUSIONS: The definitive diagnosis is usually obtained after the definitive histopathologic examination since the use of immunohistochemical study has an important role in this regard. Complete surgical removal of the lesion is the treatment of choice, with no recurrent cases reported to date.