[Partial nephrectomy for renal cancer in patients with a normal contralateral kidney]

There has been a growing interest over the last few years in partial nephrectomy as the elective surgery for renal cancer in selected groups of patients with normal contralateral kidney. Between July 1990 and April 1996, 14 partial nephrectomies were performed in our service in patients with presumed diagnosis of renal cancer and normal contralateral kidney 10 of which had histological diagnosis of renal carcinoma and 4 showed absence of malignancy. From the analysis and discussion of these cases it can be deduced: 1) partial nephrectomy in selected groups of patients is an oncologically valid technique; 2) computerized tomography is a highly sensitive method for detection of renal cancer carrier patients, although it presents low specificity, mainly in small tumours, resulting in a number of false positive cases that must be considered when deciding the surgical technique; 3) tumour topography should not exclude conservative surgery of the kidney; 4) patients should be available for follow-up.