[Surgical management in synchronous bilateral renal cell carcinoma]

Six patients with synchronous bilateral renal cell carcinoma were treated surgically over a 7-year period in our department. They were all males and the mean age was 60.3 years. They comprised 7.1% of all patients with renal cell carcinoma encountered during the same period. In four out of the six cases, radical nephrectomy for the larger tumor plus partial nephrectomy for contralateral kidney was performed simultaneously. In the remaining two cases, bilateral partial nephrectomy was performed simultaneously or as separate procedures. Two patients required chronic hemodialysis and died of cardio-pulmonary insufficiency on the 70th and 75th day. One patient, who underwent bilateral partial nephrectomy with incomplete tumor removal, subsequently died of metastatic disease at 27 months. Although one of them required transient hemodialysis, the remaining three patients were alive and disease-free 84, 42, and 17 months after operation, without evidence of tumor. This series suggests that partial nephrectomy is an appropriate option in the management of selected cases of bilateral renal cell carcinoma.