[Laparoscopic lymphadenectomy].

The limitations of the diagnostic imaging methods in determining lymph node involvement in pelvic tumors (prostatic cancer) and the high incidence of false negatives in the intraoperative frozen biopsies done during open lymphadenectomy have prompted us to develop laparoscopic staging lymphadenectomy since November, 1990. The different imaging and invasive diagnostic methods are briefly analyzed in the present article. The laparoscopic lymphadenectomy procedure is described in detail and a summary of our series is presented.