Renal preservation utilizing neodymium:YAG laser

Six patients with malignancies in a solitary kidney were treated with conservative renal parenchymal-sparing surgery utilizing the Neodymium Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (Nd:YAG) laser. Three patients had transitional cell carcinoma in an upper pole calyx of a solitary kidney. The transitional cell carcinoma was treated definitively by the Nd:YAG laser through a nephroscope prior to partial nephrectomy. The 3 patients have been followed up for twenty-eight, eighteen, and six months, respectively. None of the patients has shown evidence of recurrent cancer on follow-up retrograde ureterograms or on urine cytology obtained from the renal pelves. Three patients with renal cell carcinoma in a solitary kidney had the tumor surgically excised utilizing the Nd:YAG laser in conjunction with standard surgical techniques. All the patients were elderly with compromised renal vasculature that prevented bench surgery with autotransplantation or occlusion of the renal artery. At sixteen, fourteen, and three months, respectively, there is no evidence of recurrent cancer on CAT scans obtained on these patients.