[To study the safety and effectiveness of heminephroureterectomy by horizontal lumbar posterior approach for duplicated systems in infants].
OBJECTIVE
To study the safety and effectiveness of heminephroureterectomy by horizontal lumbar posterior approach for duplicated systems in infants.


METHODS
Thirty-three heminephroureterectomies by lumbar posterior approach were performed in 31 infants at a mean age of 6.7 +/- 5.5 months (range: 1 to 26 months) from January 1994 to December 2005.


RESULTS
The mean operative time was 121 +/- 35 minutes (range: 60 to 190 minutes). No intra-operative complication was observed. Blood loss was minimal (< 20 ml) in all cases. The mean hospital stay was 4.6 days (range: 2 to 7 days). No postoperative complication (urinoma, infection or haemotoma) occurred. No atrophy or major functional loss of the remaining moiety was observed. The mean follow-up was 52.6 +/- 40 months (range: 1 to 151 months).


CONCLUSIONS
The lumbar posterior approach is safe and reproducible and provides an obvious cosmetic benefit in comparison to the standard anterolateral lumbotomy. It represents a procedure of choice for open heminephroureterectomy in infants.
Ploussard
Guillaume
G
Service de chirurgie pédiatrique viscérale, Service de médecine nucléaire, Hôpital d'Enfants Armand-Trousseau, Paris, France.
Nouira
Faouzi
F
Auber
Frédéric
F
Fayad
Fawaz
F
Sergent-Alaoui
Aline
A
Audry
Georges
G
D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007668:Kidney / Q000002:abnormalities*; D009392:Nephrectomy / Q000379:methods*; D014513:Ureter / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000601:surgery*