Of a total of 1,025 cases of radical hysterectomy for histological squamous cell carcinoma (543 stage I cases and 482 stage II cases), we examined 50 cases of recurrence of the carcinoma (4.9 percent; 24 stage I cases and 26 stage II cases) at the site of the vaginal stump. The percentage of recurrence at the site of the vaginal stump was significantly higher in stage I and stage II cases, in which metastases to the lymph nodes or vascular invasion was observed (p less than 0.01). The length of vagina excised during the radical hysterectomy was measured and its relationship to recurrence at the site of the vaginal stump was investigated. In stage I cases that did not exhibit metastases to the lymph nodes, the shortest vaginal length excised in cases with a positive recurrence at the site of the vaginal stump was 2.5 +/- 0.9 cm; the shortest vaginal length in cases with a negative recurrence at the site of the vaginal stump was 1.8 +/- 0.8 cm. A significant difference (p less than 0.05) was observed between them. Furthermore, in stage I cases with no metastases to the lymph nodes, one recurrence at the site of the vaginal stump was observed when the vaginal length excised was 3 cm. In stage I cases with metastases to the lymph nodes and in stage II cases, no significant difference was discovered between the length of vagina excised in cases with positive and those with negative recurrences of the carcinoma at the site of the vaginal stump.