Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 31, 2026

Single Port Donor Nephrectomy
Published on: March 12, 2011
Case Report of Living Kidney Transplantation Using Ectopic Pelvic Kidney Harvested by Reduced Port Laparoscopic Donor
Y Miyauchi1, T Noda1, N Miura1
1Department of Urology, Ehime University, Shitsukawa, Toon, Ehime, Japan.
Abstract:
A 28-year-old woman was diagnosed as having an ectopic kidney in adolescence. She desired to donate her ectopic kidney to her mother, who was diagnosed as having renal failure. The ectopic kidney was located behind the sigmoid colon with 3 renal arteries and 3 renal veins. Laparoscopic donor nephrectomy was performed by reduced port surgery using the GelPOINT access platforms at a midline incision below the umbilicus with 1 accessory port. A thin artery of the donated kidney was ligated. An artery of the upper pole was anastomosed to the internal iliac artery, and a second artery was anastomosed directly to the inferior epigastric artery. Three veins were anastomosed to the external iliac vein: 1 anastomosed directly, 1 interposed by saphenous vein graft, and 1 interposed by harvested ovarian vein. To our knowledge, this is the first successful case of transplantation using an ectopic pelvic kidney by reduced port laparoscopic donor nephrectomy.
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External Anatomy of the Kidney
The kidneys are located in the retroperitoneal space on either side of the vertebral column, protected posteriorly by the 11th and 12th ribs. The right kidney sits slightly lower than the left owing to the presence of the liver...
Internal Anatomy of the Kidney
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The kidneys are retroperitoneal organs positioned against the posterior abdominal wall on either side of the spine, roughly between the twelfth thoracic and third lumbar vertebrae. Each kidney is typically 10-12 cm long, 5-6 cm wide, and 3-4 cm thick, weighing about 150 grams.
Renal Cortex
The outermost region of the kidney is the...

