[SILS, LESS, NOS, and Co. for minimally invasive kidney treatment: is less more?]

Single-port surgery (LESS) is a new method of minimally invasive laparoscopic urology. These modern methods reduce the tissue trauma of the patient; however, high demands are placed on the surgeon. We report our initial clinical experience.

Eight patients with different pathologies in the abdomen and retroperitoneum (nephrectomy, renal cyst resection) were treated with an abdominal LESS access and two patients with vaginal NOS (natural orifice surgery) access. Previously, we obtained extensive experience with the setup and implementation in animal studies. The port placements were realized by various single-port systems in the paraumbilical region.

All procedures were performed without conversion to an open surgical procedure. Two additional trocars were needed in the first single-port operation. The intra- and postoperative follow-up was uneventful in all patients. The average age of the patients was 58.9 years, the average operating time 131 min, the mean blood loss 70 ml, and the median body mass index 27. The postoperative evaluation of patient satisfaction revealed that all patients were perfectly satisfied.

With appropriate experience and training of the whole team, single-port surgery is a safe and appropriate method for selected renal surgery.