Hysterectomy in central recurrence of carcinoma of the uterine cervix.

Central recurrence was recorded during 1963-1972 in 136 patients (14%) out of a group of 977 cases given radiation therapy for carcinoma of the uterine cervix (Stages I and II). Fifty of these patients (i.e. 37%) showed indications for surgery. In 12 of them only explorative laparotomy was performed. Radical hysterectomy was carried out in 14 cases, combined vaginal and abdominal wide extrafascial hysterectomy in 13 cases and ordinary extrafascial hysterectomy was chosen in 11 cases. The cellmorphology in the squamous-cell cancers, classified according to Reagan et al., was proportionally the same in these patients as in the series as a whole. The patients operated on by combined vaginal and abdominal hysterectomy had the same rate of survival, but fewer complications, than those given radical hysterectomy.