Completely laparoscopic versus open radical nephrectomy and infrahepatic tumor thrombectomy: Comparison of surgical complexity and prognosis.

To compare the operation complexity and prognosis of completely laparoscopic versus open radical nephrectomy and infrahepatic tumor thrombectomy.

We reviewed and analyzed the clinical data of 87 patients with infrahepatic tumor thrombus from January 2015 to April 2019 retrospectively. Completely laparoscopic infrahepatic tumor thrombectomy was completed in 41 cases, and open surgery was completed in 46 cases.

All 41 patients successfully completed laparoscopic operation, and there were no cases of death during the operation. The completely laparoscopic group were older, had smaller renal tumor diameter, shorter median operation time, lower median intraoperative hemorrhage volume, and lower median transfusion volume of suspended red blood cells compared with open surgeries. The proportion of low-level tumor thrombus (Mayo I) in the completely laparoscopic group was higher (63.4%), while the proportion of low-level tumor thrombus in the open surgery group was lower (30.4%) (P = 0.002). The postoperative complications incidence of laparoscopic surgery was 19.5%, which was lower than that of open surgery (47.8%) (P = 0.004). The mean cancer-specific survival time of the laparoscopic surgery group was 36.6 ± 2.5 months, while that of the open surgery group was 32.3 ± 2.7 months (P = 0.277). There was no statistical difference between the two groups.

Although completely laparoscopic radical nephrectomy and infrahepatic tumor thrombectomy is a challenging operation, it could be feasible and safely performed, especially in the hands of highly-experienced laparoscopic urologists for well selected cases.

Asian journal of surgery. 2020 Dec 17 [Epub ahead of print]

Zhuo Liu, Xun Zhao, Liyuan Ge, Bingjun Wu, Shiying Tang, Peng Hong, Qiming Zhang, Liwei Li, Ran Peng, Binshuai Wang, Guoliang Wang, Shudong Zhang, Xiaojun Tian, Hongxian Zhang, Lulin Ma

Department of Urology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, PR China., Department of Urology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, PR China. Electronic address: ., Department of Ultrasound, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, PR China., Department of Radiation Oncology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, PR China., Department of Urology, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing, 100191, PR China. Electronic address: .