Left Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy – Minimally Invasive Kidney-Sparing Surgery for Kidney Cancer

Today's challenging case: we performed a Left Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy (minimally invasive kidney-sparing surgery for kidney cancer) on a patient with a 6.5 cm tumor in the left kidney extending into the kidney. ✅What is partial nephrectomy? “Partial nephrectomy” means that, in suitable patients with kidney cancer, only the tumor-bearing part is removed together with a few millimeters of surrounding healthy tissue, leaving the rest of the kidney in place. It is also called “nephron-sparing” or “kidney-sparing” surgery. ✅How is laparoscopic partial nephrectomy performed? “Laparoscopic partial nephrectomy” is a minimally invasive (laparoscopic) operation. In the laparoscopic method, the operation is performed through a few small incisions of about half a centimeter in the abdomen, using special instruments (trocars), with the image projected onto a screen by a camera. Through one of the trocars placed in the abdomen, carbon dioxide gas is introduced to inflate the abdomen and create a wide working space. In this way the image is magnified about 10 times. A camera is then introduced through another trocar, the image is projected onto the screen and the operation is carried out. ✅What are the benefits of partial nephrectomy? The most important advantage of partial nephrectomy is the preservation of kidney function. This is particularly important in patients whose kidney function is already not very good, because removing the kidney with cancer may leave the patient having to live on dialysis. In patients whose kidney function deteriorates or who live on dialysis, heart disease and related deaths are more common than in people with normal kidney function. For this reason, care should be taken to preserve kidney function as much as possible.