Modified surgical technique for the management of renal cell carcinoma with level I or II tumor thrombus.
OBJECTIVE
To describe a modified open surgical technique for the resection of renal cell carcinoma with level I or II tumor thrombus.


METHODS
In our modified technique, the renal artery is ligated early and the tumor thrombus is secured ahead of kidney mobilization by either milking into the renal vein or with extirpation from the inferior vena cava. We retrospectively studied patients who were managed with this technique.


RESULTS
Between September 2006 and June 2010, 20 patients with a median age of 65 years underwent surgery for renal cell carcinoma with level I (n=15) or II (n=5) tumor thrombus using the modified technique. Median blood loss was 275 mL with 75% of patients requiring at least 1 transfused unit of blood. No case was complicated by an intraoperative tumor embolism. Following surgery, patients stayed a median of 5 days in the hospital and none experienced a perioperative complication.


CONCLUSIONS
The described surgical technique allows for the safe and effective resection of renal cell carcinoma with level I or II tumor thrombus. This technique enables vascular control of the inferior vena cava with a minimal risk of tumor embolization.
Department of Urology, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida 33101, USA.
Michael A
MA
Gorin
Michael
M
Garcia-Roig
Samir P
SP
Shirodkar
Javier
J
Gonzalez
Gaetano
G
Ciancio
D000368:Aged; D016063:Blood Loss, Surgical; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007680:Kidney Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008099:Liver / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; D009392:Nephrectomy / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014682:Vena Cava, Inferior / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*