Type of Surgery
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Last updated: 11/24/2009
The HCUP Nationwide Inpatient Sample from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) reports that 46,130 patients underwent partial or radical nephrectomy surgery for non-transplant-related indications in the United States in 2000. Patients...
with kidney cancer accounted for over half of those procedures. The American Cancer Society projects that an estimated 31,900 new cases of renal cell carcinoma will occur in the United States in 2003.
According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), 5,974 people underwent nephrectomy to become living kidney donors in 2001. The majority of these donors—43.9%—were between the ages of 35 and 49, and 58.8% were female. Related donors were more common than non-related donors, with full siblings being the most common relationship between living donor and kidney recipients (28.5% of living donors).
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To remove a kidney in an open procedure, an incision is made below the ribcage (A). The kidney is exposed (B) and connections to blood vessels and the ureter are severed (C). The kidney is removed in one piece (D). (Illustration by GGS Inc.)
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Nephrectomy is the surgical removal of a kidney.
The surgery is performed with the patient under general anesthesia. The surgeon makes an incision in the side of the abdomen to reach the kidney. Depending on circumstances, the incision can also be made midline. The ureter and blood vessels are disconnected, and the kidney is then removed.
The surgery can be done as open surgery, with one incision, or as a laparoscopic procedure, with three or four small cuts in the abdominal and flank area.
Recently, this procedure is performed through a single incision in the patient's belly-button. This advanced technique is called as Single Port Access Surgery.
There are alternatives today that do not require the extraction of a kidney. Such alternatives include renal embolization and partial nephrectomy, both of which are more practical because it does not look for a donor kidney, but simply works on the patient's kidney.
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