For completely endophytic kidney tumours, which grow inward, both open partial nephrectomy (OPN) and robotic partial nephrectomy (RPN) led to excellent patient outcomes in a recent study.

"Partial nephrectomy (PN) is currently accepted as the standard of care for patients with T1a tumours, and for patients with T1b tumours when technically feasible. Depending on the surgeon’s preference and technical availability, PN can be performed using a robotic, laparoscopic, or open approach." the authors write in the paper, published in BJU International "Since its introduction, robotassisted PN (RAPN) has been shown to be a feasible alternative to open PN, and with similar or better perioperative outcomes to laparoscopic PN . Given increasing experience with RAPN, its use has been extended to include more complex cases including completely endophytic tumours."

When investigators analysed information on 87 RPN and 56 OPN cases, they found that the patients in the RPN group had shorter length of hospital stay, less blood loss, and lower blood transfusion rates during surgery.

No cancer recurrences occurred with median follow-up of 15.2 and 18.1 months in the RPN and OPN groups, respectively.

There was no difference in rates of kidney function preservation following surgery.

"Robotic partial nephrectomy results match the open approach for small localised endophytic renal masses, while affording a minimally invasive approach and shorter hospital stay," said Dr. Jihad Kaouk, senior author study.

Source: BJU International