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 computed tomography. Nephron-sparing renal surgery is being done more often to treat these small lesions. A retrospective review was done to determine the effectiveness of this treatment.


METHODS
Patients who had nephron-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 differences in fall in hematocrit, transfusion rates, operative time, and hospital stay. Major surgical complications were more frequent in group 1. After a median follow-up of 3.1 years, there has been no recurrence of tumor and there were no surgery-related or cancer-related deaths in either group.


CONCLUSIONS
Nephron-sparing renal surgery appears to be a safe and effective alternative to radical nephrectomy for localized small renal tumors.
Indudhara
R
R
Department of Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham 35294-3296, USA.
Bueschen
A J
AJ
Urban
D A
DA
Burns
J R
JR
Lloyd
L K
LK
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009392:Nephrectomy / Q000379:methods*; D009399:Nephrons; D011183:Postoperative Complications; D016896:Treatment Outcome