Nefrectomía radical laparoscópica: reporte de un caso en el Hospital Universitario.

Laparoscopic radical nephrectomy has gained acceptance since its introduction in 1991. It is considered nowadays as a good alternative for treating small tumors in most of the medical centers in the United States. Material and method: We report the first laparoscopic radical nephrectomy made in our hospital on a 48 year-old female with a small tumor (3 cm) in the right kidney found during follow-up of a breast cancer diagnosed and treated four years earlier. Patient characteristics and size of the tumor were examined and correlated with ease of surgical dissection and surgical outcome. Computed tomography was used to identify the tumor size. Result: The patient underwent successful laparoscopic radical nephrectomy without the need for an open conversion. We made a 7 cm incision for the extraction of the kidney at the level of lateral trocar. The size of the tumor was 3.0 cm located on the lower pole. The operative time was 340 minutes. The estimated blood loss was 250 cc. Conclusions: Laparoscopic radical nephrectomy is a reproducible technique of minimally invasive surgery that is a lengthy and demanding procedure today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]