[Laparoscopic lymphadenectomy. Current indications].
OBJECTIVES: To analyse the experience of our own group and other reference groups with laparoscopic pelvic lymphadenectomy since 1990 regarding different aspects: Technical details, results, complications, and establishment of its current indications for prostate cancer treatment. METHODS: We report a retrospective statistical analysis of a series of lymphadenectomies over a 10 year period with a total of 202 cases (69 laparoscopic and 133 open surgical) analysing different lymph node invasion risk factors. RESULTS: Elevated PSA and Gleason resulted in more lymph node infiltration being the cutting point in 40 and 7 respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Laparoscopic lymphadenectomy provides equal diagnostic reliability than the traditional technique. Currently we perform laparoscopic lymphadenectomy in prostate cancer for T3 tumours (independently of PSA or Gleason score) and in < T3 with PSA > or = 40, Gleason > or = 8, and in cases with Gleason 7 and PSA > 20.