Bench surgery in renal tumors.

Extracorporeal or "bench" surgery is useful in highly selected cases of renal cell carcinoma in a solitary kidney, those with large tumors involving the center third of the kidney or multiple tumors. This author reports on its use in 7 patients out of 25 operated for cure for tumor in a solitary kidney. Except for 1 postoperative non-cancer death, all are now alive and free of tumor between 2 and 10 years after surgery.