Safety and Efficacy of Right Retroperitoneal Laparoscopic Live Donor Nephrectomy: A Retrospective Single-Center Study

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of right retroperitoneal laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy (LDN) in 81 cases of living-related renal transplant. MATERIAL AND METHODS We retrospectively reviewed all living-related donors who underwent right retroperitoneoscopic living donor nephrectomy between June 2010 and December 2017 at the First Hospital of Jilin University and their corresponding recipients. Demographic and clinical data were collected from the hospital's electronic clinical data system. Data on preoperative renal retention parameters, operative time, and donor kidney warm ischemia time, the trimmed length of the renal artery and vein of donor kidney, and the time to extubation were recorded. Complications in both donors and recipients were recorded. RESULTS We included 81 donors who underwent successful right-sided retroperitoneoscopic LDN, with 31 males and 50 females and a mean age of 47.1 years (range 21-63 years). There was no intraoperative conversion to open donor nephrectomy. The mean operative time was 120.68±29.8 min. The mean warm ischemic time was 49.26±3.86 s. The estimate blood loss was 54.32 mL (range 50-400 mL). The median length of hospital stay was 7 days (range 4-13 days). There was neither intraoperative complication such as hemorrhage or lymph fistula nor kidney graft injury. There was no graft renal vein thrombosis and ureteral stricture or other complications. No graft rejection occurred. CONCLUSIONS Right retroperitoneal laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy is safe and effective for renal transplant in living-related renal transplant by laparoscopic excision and extraction of the right kidney with vena cava flap.