Debulking surgery for ovarian cancer with the Cavitron Ultrasonic Surgical Aspirator (CUSA)--a preliminary report.

The Cavitron Ultrasonic Surgical Aspirator (CUSA) can be used to fragment and aspirate tissue precisely. The CUSA was utilized as an adjunctive procedure to standard operative techniques to optimally debulk 11 women with advanced epithelial carcinoma of the ovary. No significant intraoperative or postoperative complications were encountered. It is suggested that this technique may be safely attempted in combination with the standard surgical techniques for debulking nonfibrous ovarian tumors or may allow removal of nonfibrous tumor masses which cannot be resected safely utilizing the standard surgical techniques. The authors found the CUSA's efficiency was limited in dense and fibrotic tissue. On the basis of our experience with this small number of patients, we believe this technique deserves further study.