A proposed glossary of terminology related to the surgical treatment of vulvar carcinoma

Surgery of the vulva in vulvar cancer

“…Most controversies are encountered concerning groin surgery [10], and this is probably due to the fact that the macroscopic anatomic knowledge is nearly always taken for granted, copied from article to article and from book to book without being questioned, and rarely interpreted from a surgical point of view [11]. These controversies have been addressed by Micheletti and co-workers through original anatomic and embryological studies [12e14], whose findings integrated with classic anatomical knowledge are herein presented.…”

“…To describe this more conservative surgery, various names have been used, including modified vulvectomy, conservative vulvectomy, radical hemivulvectomy, partial vulvectomy, wide local excision, radical wide excision or radical local excision. This heterogeneous terminology shows a clear lack of consensus in defining conservative vulval surgery, mainly due to differences between different languages; in some cases, this is due to disagreement between topographic and surgical anatomical terminology [11].…”

Operative Therapie des Vulvakarzinoms

“…Dabei ist die Ausdehnung der Resektion zur Tiefe metrisch nur problematisch anzugeben, hier existiert mit der Faszie zudem eine anatomische Struktur, deren Resektion analog zur Terminologie in anderen anatomischen Regionen durch den Begriff radikal ausgedrückt wird; entsprechend klassifiziert eine systematische Zusammenstellung zur Terminologie und zu den Operationsverfahren [15]. Der Resektionsabstand zur Seite muss dagegen bei einem organerhaltenden Vorgehen metrisch definiert werden.…”

“…Vulvar carcinoma · Vulvar cancer · Operative therapy · Local excision · Lymphonodectomy ramen ovale an den Vasa femoralia [15]. Der Hiatus saphenus muss bei der Lymphonodektomie präpariert werden, die Venen müssen zum Teil ligiert werden.…”

Recurrent squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva

“…6 Patients were treated with a total deep vulvectomy or a partial deep vulvectomy with the deep fascia of the urogenital diaphragm as the depth limit of the resection. 7 An attempt was made to obtain 1.5 cm of macroscopically free surgical margins. Almost all operations prior to 1989 consisted of a vulvectomy and lymphadenectomy using a single en bloc incision.…”