[The hand assisted transperitoneal laparoscopic donor nephrectomy]

From December 2004 to May 2005 we performed hand assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy in 13 female and seven male patients. The median age was 37 years. As immunosuppressant drug, we consistently used tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil, methylprednisolone and a monoclonal antibody. The median surgical time was 138 min (range 113-180), and the median warm ischemic time was 87 s (range 63-150). These results are comparable to the surgical and warm ischemic times for open donor nephrectomy. The hospitalization period of the donors was between 5 and 7 days. Renal function and acute-phase parameters showed a transient increase during and after the operation. Most of the patients reached the baseline levels at day 3 and 4, respectively. Together with the clinical data, these findings verify the minimal invasiveness of laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. In the future, this surgical method will probably be the procedure of choice.