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Introduction: The blood-based inflammatory marker, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), is a reliable prognostic biomarker for several cancers. Although the literature supports the correlation between preoperative NLR, clinicopathological characteristics, and oncological outcomes in upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC), the cutoff of NLR is still debated. This study aimed to determine the prognostic value of NLR in patients with UTUC. Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data from July 2012 to December 2022 evaluating patients with UTUC who underwent radical nephroureterectomy (RNU). NLR was calculated using the neutrophil and lymphocyte counts obtained a day before the surgery and the cutoff value was set as 2.5. Kaplan-Meier and Cox's proportional hazards regression were used to analyze the association between NLR and the oncological outcomes. Results: The study included 91 patients (78 males, 13 females) in the final analysis with a median follow-up of 49 months (8-130). The mean age of the patients with NLR <2.5 and NLR >2.5 was 56.88 years and 56.35 years, respectively, and the pathological stage was pT1 in 48%, pT2 in 20.88%, pT3 in 27.47%, and pT4 in 3.30% of the patients. Multivariable Cox regression analysis showed that the preoperative NLR >2.5 was significantly associated (Hz = 7.17) with higher T stage, lymphovascular invasion, necrosis, nodal involvement, adjuvant chemotherapy, and worse overall survival (OS) (Hz = 9.87). The Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed an improved OS in patients with NLR <2.5, but a statistically significant difference in the recurrence-free survival was not found. Conclusions: Preoperative NLR is an easily available, inexpensive, and important prognostic biomarker of survival in patients with UTUC and has a potential role in risk stratification by predicting adverse clinicopathological characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Ritesh. Goel, Pankush. Gupta We have read with great interest, the article by Sharma et al .,[1] comparing the T ½ and normalized residual activity (NORA) in diuretic renograms. [...]

Background: Right living donor nephrectomy is technically more demanding because of the anatomical differences. Patient safety is the utmost priority because it is performed on healthy donors. We hereby describe our experiences with surgical modifications to minimize donor morbidity and overcome surgical challenges in the cases of right living donor nephrectomy. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective comparative study, we analyzed the prospectively maintained perioperative and follow-up data of standard and modified right living donor nephrectomies performed in the recent past 10 years at our institute. We also compared the significant events in corresponding recipients. Student's t-tests were used to define statistical significance. Results: A total of 1530 laparoscopic living donor nephrectomies were performed between 2012 and 2021, of which 117 were on the right side. Of them, 62 donors underwent modified right laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (MRLDN) and 55 underwent standard right laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. The mean duration of surgery (103.44 ± 14.59 vs. 139.45 ± 25.99 min), warm ischemia time (4.30 ± 0.59 vs. 5.89 ± 0.91 min), and blood loss (90.24 ± 24.75 vs. 103.72 ± 33.37 mL) were significantly lower in modified as compared to standard donor nephrectomy (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in postoperative diuresis, acute tubular necrosis, and serum creatinine at 3 months in the corresponding recipient group. Conclusion: MRLDN is a safe, reliable, and reproducible technique of right laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]