Laparoscopic radical nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma: early experience

We developed a laparoscopic radical nephrectomy for malignant disease of the kidney and successfully performed the operation in six patients between July 1992 and October 1993. This procedure is basically derived from that of Clayman and associates. A CO2 pneumoperitoneum is induced, and five trocars are introduced into the abdominal cavity through the lateral abdominal wall. The kidney is removed en bloc together with the adrenal gland, perirenal fatty tissue, and Gerota's fascia. The free kidney is put into a laparoscopy sack, and the sack is pulled out through a 5- to 6-cm incision in the abdominal wall without morcellation to allow complete pathologic examination. By this procedure, right nephrectomy was performed in four patients and left nephrectomy in two patients. The mean operative time was 6 hours and 13 minutes, and the mean blood loss was 430 mL. There were no severe complications. The average hospital stay was 11 days, and the average time to full convalescence was 21 days. Pathologic examination revealed renal cell carcinoma in five patients and nephroblastoma in one. Of the patients with renal cell carcinoma, the stage was pT1pN0pM0 in three patients and pT2pN0pM0 in two. There has been no recurrent disease in these six patients with a mean follow-up period of 9.5 months.