Urological retroperitoneoscopic surgery for patients with prior intra-abdominal surgery.

OBJECTIVE

To determine whether previous intra-abdominal surgery is associated with surgical outcome in patients undergoing urological retroperitoneoscopic surgery.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

One hundred seventeen cases of urological retroperitoneoscopic surgery, including 78 cases of retroperitoneoscopic radical nephrectomy (RN) for localized renal tumor and 39 cases of retroperitoneoscope-assisted radical nephroureterectomy (RNU) for upper urinary tract cancer, were evaluated. Thirty (38.5%) of the 78 patients who underwent RN and 13 (33.3%) of the 39 patients who underwent RNU had a history of intra-abdominal surgery. The patients were divided into two groups: those who had undergone prior intra-abdominal surgery (OP+) and those who had not (OP-). Patients' backgrounds, degree of surgical invasiveness, and period of convalescence were compared between the OP+ and OP- groups.

RESULTS

There was no significant difference between the OP+ and OP- groups in terms of background, surgical invasiveness or convalescence, except for age in the patients who had undergone RN. Complications in the studied cases were unrelated to any history of intra-abdominal surgery.

CONCLUSION

Previous intra-abdominal surgery is not associated with a negative outcome of urological retroperitoneoscopic surgery in patients with localized renal tumors and those with upper urinary tract cancer.