Resumen
One of the most frequent complications of the systematic lymph node dissection (SLND) is the injury of autonomic nervous system in the para-aortal region during the procedure. These injuries are supposed to be responsible for some of the postoperative bladder, bowel, and sexual dysfunctions. The poor anatomical understanding of the sympathetic nerves within the boundaries of an infra-renal bilateral template has limited the promulgation of a precise nerve-sparing surgery during such SLND. Therefore, the principal goal of the present study was to provide the first ever-comprehensive exposition of the anatomy of the female aortic plexus and superior hypogastric plexus and their variations. This exposition was achieved by strategic dissection of 19 human female cadavers and extrapolating the findings to develop a precise surgical technique for more accurate navigation into these structures during nerve-sparing SLND in 15 cervical cancer patients and 48 ovarian cancer patients.