Hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery

Hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery has been used to perform nephrectomies. This report contrasts the efficacy, postoperative morbidity, length of stay, analgesic use, and time to recovery for hand-assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy, to standard laparoscopic and open nephrectomy. The technique for hand-assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy used at two institutions is described. The results from these two institutions are contrasted to results in the literature for standard laparoscopic and open nephrectomy. Standard and hand-assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy seem similar in terms of efficacy of surgery, time of surgery, estimated blood loss, length of stay, and time to full recovery. The two laparoscopic techniques seem to show advantage over open surgery in respect to shorter hospital stay, faster full recovery, and less analgesic use. The operative time for the laparoscopic surgeries is longer than the open surgery operating time. Hand-assisted laparoscopic surgery seems to be equivalent to standard laparoscopy. As urologists around the world are trained in hand-assisted laparoscopic nephrectomy, a more refined look at these early results will be possible.