Hemostasis in laparoscopic renal surgery

Hemorrhage is a potential risk at any step of laparoscopic nephrectomies (LNs). The advances in surgical equipment and tissue sealants have increased the safety and efficiency of performing LN and laparoscopic partial nephrectomy (LPN). However, hemostasis remains a major issue and there is still scope for further development to improve haemostatic techniques and devices. In this article a literature review of the current methods and techniques of hemostasis was carried out using the MEDLINE (®)/PubMed(®) resources. The results of the review were categorized according to the three main operative steps: Dissection, control of renal pedicle and excision of the renal lesion.