[Retroperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomy: a safe and reproducible technique]

Laparoscopic adrenalectomy has become one of the reference techniques for resection of small tumours of the adrenal gland. The objective of this study was to evaluate the retroperitoneal approach in terms of its intraoperative complication rate, morbidity and length of hospital stay, comparing two centres using the same surgical technique.

Between January 1995 and March 2000, two different centres respectively performed 55 and 60 laparoscopic adrenalectomies (70 left, 45 right) using a retroperitoneal incision in 106 patients (64 women and 42 men) with a mean age of 49.3 years (range: 17 to 74 years). The mean size of the adrenal tumour was 31 mm (range: 10 to 61 mm). Five trocars were used in every case.

No difference was observed between the two centres in terms of operating time (100 min vs 135 min), conversion rate (0% vs 1.7%), and blood loss (74 ml vs 80 ml). With a mean follow-up of 23.4 months, no difference was observed for morbidity rate (12.7% vs 16.7%), including intraoperative complications (1.8% vs 5%) with 3 vascular injuries, and postoperative complications (10.9% vs 11.7%) comprising wound abscesses, deep haematomas, a hernia at the trocar orifice and one case of severe pneumonia. The mean hospital stay was 3 days vs 5 days with a mean duration of analgesic consumption of 2 days (range: 1 to 5 days).

Laparoscopic retroperitoneal adrenalectomy appears to be a reliable and reproducible approach for resection of adrenal gland tumours less than 6 cm in diameter.