implemented to motivate and educate institutions
to decrease the incidence of SSI, among other
complications.
In the current study, the authors undertake an
evaluation of SSIs occurring in patients undergoing
EC staging via MIS or laparotomy over 10 years.
Their thoughtful analysis includes a breakdown
of risk factors into risks that can be preventable
and those that are unavoidable such as the need
for bowel resection or the need for transfusion at
the time of surgery. They conclude that patients
would be better served if some of these risk
factors such as preoperative smoking and hy-
perglycemia could be brought under control.
Although their database did not permit this, it
would be interesting to determine a metric for
‘‘good control.’’ Would that be hemoglobin A
1c
?
Preoperative levels of nicotine metabolite? It
would also be interesting to know more about
antibiotic prophylaxis. There was no difference
between the groups; however, the period of
evaluation included a nonYSurgical Care Im-
provement Project era (pre-2006), and previous
to that time, the decision to give antibiotics and
choice of drug might have been variable.
Lastly, the findings support MIS approach; a
15-fold decrease in SSIs was observed when
staging was performed via MIS compared with
laparotomy. There are many reasons to offer an
MIS approach, and luckily we are well into the
era of MIS. While the Gynecologic Oncology
Group Lap 2 trial showed no difference between
laparotomy and laparoscopy/MIS approach in
regard to SSI, more recent articles support the
finding that SSI is much decreased with an MIS
approach, thus decreasing cost and patient mor-
bidity. Surgical-site infections are important post-
operative complications, and whereas some are
not serious, many can be. This is an area worth
paying attention to especially because we as
surgeons can intervene at so many levels to de-
crease the incidence of SSIs.VLVL)
Prophylactic Use of Levonorgestrel-Releasing
Intrauterine System in Women With
Breast Cancer Treated With Tamoxifen:
A Randomized Controlled Trial
Alice W. Y. Wong, Symphorosa S. C. Chan, Winnie Yeo, Mei-Yung Yu,
and Wing-Hung Tam
Departments of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Clinical Oncology, and Anatomical and Cellular Pathology,
Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong
Obstet Gynecol 2013;121:943Y950
ABSTRACT
The use of tamoxifen has contributed to the decline of breast cancer mortality in the Western world. Although a 5-year
course of treatment reduces the annual recurrence rate of this cancer by almost half and the mortality rate by one third,
tamoxifen also increases the incidence of endometrial polyps and doubles the risk of endometrial cancer. Previous
studies have shown that the levonorgestrel-releasing intrauterine system (LNG-IUS) provides endometrial protection
for women with a uterus receiving estrogen replacement therapy and induces regression of endometrial hyperplasia.
The prophylactic benefits of this system in women with breast cancer treated with tamoxifen are unclear. Only 2 ran-
domized controlled trials have examined the endometrial protective effects of LNG-IUS in women with breast cancer
treated with tamoxifen. Short-term follow-up data (2 years at most) from both trials showed that the system provided
endometrial protection against tamoxifen.
568 Obstetrical and Gynecological Survey
Copyright © 2013 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.