[Laparoscopic treatment of retroperitoneal fibrosis.]

Retroperitoneal fibrosis is a disease that may condition a severe involvement of various organs, mainly upper urinary tract, even causing renal insufficiency. It was first described by Albarran in 1905 and it is also known as Ormonds disease. The correct diagnosis includes, in many cases, the performance of one or more tests: CT scan, MRI, renal scan, etc. It is often necessary the insertion of double J catheters on percutaneous nephrostomy tubes with the aim to preserve renal function. Initial treatment is medical, based on corticoids, and , less frequent, immunosuppressive or chemotherapy drugs. Surgery is the treatment of choice when ureteral entrapment by the fibrous plaque is not solved with medical treatment. Such operation may be performed with a conventional open approach (laparotomy) or by pure, hand assisted laparoscopic surgery, or robotic surgery. In all cases, the technique involves freeing the ureters from the fibrous plaque that entraps them, leaving them intraperitoneal, and it is recommendable to wrap them with an omental flap. The implantation of minimally invasive techniques has made that, in groups with experience in laparoscopy, open surgery is being abandoned and the laparoscopic approach indication is increasing. Our group has performed 10 laparoscopic ureterolysis from 2005. In two patients, it was bilateral. Despite surgical repair, two renal units were lost, keeping the rest with different levels of renal function depending on the preoperative level of disease. We did not have major complications and the mean hospital stay was 5.5 days. Although, there is not important published scientific evidence about this technique and it is unlikely we will have it in an immediate future, due to the rarity of this disease, and the different degree of involvement that conditions. It is not unreasonable to propose that, based on the literature reviewed and our own experience, laparoscopic approaches, despite being complex, may solve the ureteral entrapment with similar results to open surgery but less morbidity and shorter hospital stay.