[Renal carcinoma with bilateral location and in the single kidney]

Patients with renal carcinoma, admitted to the university urological clinic in Rostock, Germany, over a ten-year period (1980 through 1990), are analyzed retrospectively. In ninety-seven patients the histological diagnosis is confirmed during operation. Renal carcinoma with bilateral location is diagnosed in eight of them. Four patients present a single kidney because of previous neoplastic nephrectomy of the other one. Apart from that there are five patients with carcinoma of the only kidney due to other causes: aplasia of the first kidney (4 cases) and nephrectomy of a pyelonephrotic kidney (1 case). The total number of carcinomas involving the only kidney amount to nine, and in seven of them the organ salvaging operation performed is successful. In two patients, owing to involvement of the wall discovered during operation, this intervention proves impracticable. Here the operation terminates with radical nephrectomy, with the patients undergoing hemodialysis, and preparation for renal transplantation. The survival term exceeds five years in one patient alone. Two deaths occur during the operation, attributed to the advanced stage of the tumor: in 4 patients T4, and in the remainder (4)-T3a and T3b.