Laparoscopic hand assisted radical cystectomy with ileal conduit urinary diversion

Hand assisted laparoscopy was originally described in the early 1990s. Since then many studies have shown that hand assisted techniques have the same advantages of laparoscopy including decreased need for postoperative narcotics and rapid return to routine activities. Laparoscopic techniques are advancing rapidly and intracorporeal laparoscopic cystectomy is reported. To our knowledge we report the first case of hand assisted, laparoscopic radical cystectomy with ileal conduit urinary diversion.

A 68-year-old male with rapidly recurring grade III transitional cell carcinoma elected to undergo hand assisted radical cystectomy. We performed a radical cystectomy with bilateral pelvic lymph node dissection removing the specimen through the hand port site. The ileal loop urinary diversion was constructed by pulling the small bowel through the hand port incision. We made another separate hole for the stoma and a drain was placed through a port site. The incisions were closed in the standard fashion.

Operative time was 7 hours with 750 cc of blood loss and no complications. All surgical margins were negative. The patient did well and was discharged from the hospital on postoperative day 7 with return to normal activity without limitations at 4 weeks.

To our knowledge this is the first reported case of hand assisted laparoscopic radical cystectomy with ileal loop diversion. Hand assistance facilitated this technically demanding surgery resulting in a good outcome without significant added operative time.