Experience With 15 Years of Laparoscopic Donor Nephrectomy: Review of 2500 Cases

Laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LDN) is considered the gold standard for live donor nephrectomies owing to lesser pain, shorter hospitalization, and earlier return to normal activities, yet it remains a technically challenging surgery. Repetition of a highly skilled task such as LDN should lead to improved performance reflected in shorter surgery times and a decrease in adverse events.

The records of over 2524 LDNs from February 2004 to June 2019 were evaluated for duration of surgery (from incision time to clamping of the renal artery) and occurrence of complications.

The mean duration of surgery ± SD from incision to clamp time for the first 100 cases at the inception of LDN was 166.13 ± 33.28 minutes whereas it was 124.59 ± 35.91 minutes for the best 100 consecutive cases in 2015 with a decrease of 41 minutes duration of surgery from incision to artery clamping. The adverse events were accessory renal artery injury (n = 10), splenic laceration (n = 2), bowel and mesocolon injuries (n = 12), venous or arterial clip slippage (n = 4), inferior vena cava tear (n = 2) pneumothorax (during stapler application, n = 1), missing gauze counts (n = 1), chylous ascites (n = 1), ureteric thermal injury (n = 2), and renal parenchyma injury (n = 3).

LDN is a technically demanding surgery where surgeon experience appears to affect operative metrics such as operative time. The occurrence of intraoperative complications appears to be acceptably low, although serious complications are a possibility.