Evaluation of postoperative lymphoedema after differently radical surgery for vulvar and cervical carcinoma

The aim of this study was a prospective detection of postoperative lymphedema of the lower limbs in patients after the surgery for cervical and vulvar cancer using different methods of examination and their comparison and monitoring of postoperative complications and quality of life. Totally 78 women were followed after the surgery for cervical cancer and 36 for carcinoma of the vulva. Due to the radicality of the surgery the patients were divided into the conservative and radical groups. Lower limbs lymphedema were evaluated preoperatively and 3, 6 and 12 months after the surgery by the measurement of the lower limbs circumference, multifrequency bioelectrical impedance analysis (MFBIA) and subjective feeling. Quality of life using the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) questionnaires was evaluated before and 6 and 12 month after the surgery. 12 months after the cervical cancer surgery 35.9 % of patients reported subjective lymphedema, 37.18 % lymphedema were objectively diagnosed by the measurement of lower limb circuits and in 52.56 % of cases the increase of amount of extracellular fluid was detected by the MFBIA Ri/R0 method. The prevalence of lymphedema after the surgery for vulvar cancer reached 19.44% by the subjective assessment, 38.89 % by the measurement of..