Temporary balloon occlusion of inferior vena cava in resection of renal tumor with vena cava thrombus extension.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate a novel and effective method to occlude the inferior vena cava (IVC) during surgical management of a renal tumor with a tumor thrombus extension into the IVC.


METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed the records of 10 patients with renal cell carcinoma or renal angiomyolipoma with tumor thrombus extending into the IVC who had undergone surgical intervention at our institute from May 2005 to May 2006. The balloon occlusion of the IVC was performed during surgery to decrease the risk of pulmonary embolism.


RESULTS
One patient could not tolerate the test occlusion of the IVC and the procedure was converted to IVC-right atrium bypass. The remaining 9 patients successfully underwent nephrectomy and thrombectomy with the help of temporary balloon obstruction of the IVC without perioperative mortality or morbidity. The blood pressure and circulatory status were stably maintained during occlusion of the IVC.


CONCLUSIONS
Temporary balloon occlusion of the IVC is a simple and reliable technique that decreases the risk of pulmonary embolism and facilitates the resection of renal tumor with levels II and III IVC thrombus.
Yang
Yong
Y
Department of Urology, PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China. yongyang301@yahoo.com
Sun
Shengkun
S
Xiao
Xuren
X
Song
Yong
Y
Cai
Wei
W
Wang
Maoqiang
M
Zhang
Xu
X
D021721:Balloon Occlusion; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000556:secondary* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D014682:Vena Cava, Inferior