NEPHRON-SPARING SURGERY COMPARED WITH RADICAL NEPHRECTOMY FOR RENAL TUMORS - CURRENT INDICATIONS AND RESULTS

Background. Small asymptomatic solid renal masses are being found more often through the frequent use of abdominal ultrasonography and compu ted tomography. Nephron-sparing renal surgery is being done more often to treat these small lesions. A retrospective review was done to dete rmine the effectiveness of this treatment. Methods. Patients who had n ephron-sparing renal surgery (group 1-35 patients) were compared with those who had radical nephrectomy (group 2-71 patients) for renal cell carcinoma smaller than 5 cm. Results. The two groups had only small d ifferences in fall in hematocrit, transfusion rates, operative time, a nd hospital stay. Major surgical complications were more frequent in g roup 1. After a median follow-up of 3.1 years, there has been no recur rence of turner and there were no surgery-related or cancer-related de aths in either group. Conclusion. Nephron-sparing renal surgery appear s to be a safe and effective alternative to radical nephrectomy for lo calized small renal tumors.