Complications of 411 laparoscopic urological procedures: A single surgeon experience

The aim of this study is to review the complications of laparoscopic urological procedures performed using a single surgeon during a 12-year period.

From June 2004 to May 2017, a total of 411 abdominal urological procedures were performed using the author. They included 250 varicocele ligations, 94 nephrectomies (simple, partial, radical, and nephroureterectomy), 34 adrenalectomies, 22 renal cyst ablation, and 11 pelvic lymph node dissections. Operative and postoperative complications were reviewed and analyzed. The results were analyzed using Chi-squared tests for statistical analysis.

A total of 55 complications out of 411 procedures occurred in 26 patients with a total complication rate of 13.4%, 19 were major (4.6%), and 36 were minor (8.8%). Mortality occurred in two patients (0.5%). Conversion to open surgery was done in 5 patients (1.2%) to manage uncontrolled bleeding. Major intraoperative complications included vascular injuries (2.2%), injuries to the diaphragm (0.5%), bowel (0.7%), and pancreas (0.5%). Major postoperative complications included urine leak (0.2%) and pelvic lymphocele (0.2%). Minor intraoperative complications included bleeding during trocar access (4.4%) and subcutaneous emphysema (0.7%), whereas minor postoperative complications included atelectasis (1.2%) and ileus (2.2%).

Even though the complications rate in this series was comparable to those of other studies in the literature, yet it remains higher than that of open surgery. The continuing advances in laparoscopic techniques will reduce the complication rate and will pave the way for laparoscopy to replace most currently practiced open surgical urological procedures.