Radical Pelvic and Retroperitoneal Ovarian Cancer Surgery

Radical pelvic surgery, including the removal of the uterus, adnexa, and pelvic peritoneum and en bloc resection of the rectosigmoid, should be part of the surgical armamentarium of a gynecologic oncologist because these procedures might be required to achieve a complete tumor cytoreduction in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. Furthermore, a complete pelvic and paraaortic lymphadenectomy is often required when a procedure is performed in patients with gynecologic tumors. In this chapter, we describe a step-by-step approach to performing complex radical pelvic and paraaortic retroperitoneal dissection in the setting of ovarian cancer.