Application of organ transplant techniques to urologic surgery

This article presents a detailed description of surgical techniques that have been adapted from multi-organ procurement procedures and liver and pancreas transplantation that may be applied to urologic surgery, specifically difficult excision of urologic tumors in the upper abdomen and retroperitoneum. Techniques for exposure, mobilization of the liver, mobilization of the pancreas and spleen segment, isolation of the suprarenal intra-abdominal inferior vena cava, and the intra-abdominal approach of the intracardiac inferior vena cava through a pericardial window are described. The addition of the described techniques to the urologist's surgical armamentarium may be beneficial for providing increased access and exposure in difficult urologic cases.