Videoendoscopic cutaneous ureterostomy for palliative urinary diversion in advanced pelvic cancer

Since January 1993, 9 patients with bilateral ureteral obstruction due to advanced pelvic cancers underwent videoendosurgical cutaneous ureterostomy. Five patients had prostate cancer, 3 had uterine cancer and only 1 bladder cancer. In 5 cases a bilateral laparoscopic transperitoneal procedure was performed. In 4 cases a retroperitoneal laparoscopic technique was adopted and only in 1 out of these 4 cases the procedure was done bilaterally. All the procedures were done under general anesthesia. The procedure was accomplished in all the cases without any intraoperative complication; the operative time ranged between 35 and 130 min. Postoperative pain was rather insignificant and did not require additional medication. Postdiversion hospital stay ranged from 3 to 11 days according to the general condition of the patients. The mean follow-up is 10.8 months. In conclusion, retroperitoneal laparoscopic cutaneous ureterostomy seems to be a reasonable alternative to percutaneous nephrostomy in case of bilateral ureteral obstruction due to advanced prostate or uterine cancer, provided that the clinical condition of the patient allows general anesthesia.