Experience of endoscope-assisted nephrectomy using the technique of minilaparotomy

The kidney is an organ characterized as being surrounded by many fasciae (lateroconal fascia, fusion fascia, Gerota's fascia etc.), and hence it is very important to recognize and separate each fascia compartment correctly during the process of nephrectomy. Minilaparotomy is one of the less invasive operations with a minimum skin incision through which the target organ is extracted. Since it is relatively easy to separate the fasciae around the kidney simply with instrumental manipulation, we consider minilaparotomy to be a good method for use in nephrectomy. We have been applying endoscope-assisted minilaparotomy to nephrectomy with favorable outcomes. During our 10-case experience, the mean skin incision size was 7.2 cm (6-9 cm), the mean operation time was 205 min (145290 min) and the mean blood loss was 135 g (20-490 g). No case was converted to a large skin incision or needed allogenic transfusion. No remarkable perioperative complications occurred. In our experience, endoscope-assisted nephrectomy using the technique of minilaparotomy has been a safe surgical procedure which was relatively easy to introduce.