Here, we present a protocol to increase the surgical field of view and reduce the difficulty of total transperitoneal laparoscopic nephroureterectomy surgery by precutting the umbilical ligament before treating the terminal ureter.
Upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC) accounts for 5%–10% of all urothelial tumors. Radical nephroureterectomy is the standard treatment procedure. At present, different choices still exist for treating the ureteral end during laparoscopic ureteral bladder sleeve resection. Our center has adopted a new method for treating the ureteral end. This new method can increase the operating space and reduce the difficulty of the surgery compared with current methods.
Radical nephroureterectomy is a standard procedure for treating upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC)1. Traditional open surgery requires two large incisions in the lower abdomen, which is associated with a large amount of trauma and many complications2. With the rapid development of minimally invasive techniques in urology, laparoscopic surgery has been gradually applied in many research studies. Laparoscopic surgery is identical to open surgery in treating the tumors, so the traditional surgical methods have gradually been replaced by laparoscopic surgery3.
In laparoscopic surgery, treatment of the terminal ureter has been an area of focus and a known difficulty of the surgery. At present, different choices exist for treating the ureteral end in laparoscopic nephroureterectomy. However, reductions in the difficulty of the surgery and the amount of trauma has not been possible4,5.
After years of exploration, our center has improved and adopted a new method for the treatment of the terminal ureter: precutting the medial umbilical fold not only increases the operating space but also reduces the difficulty of the surgery and minimizes extra trauma to the patient.
A traditional open renal ureter resection and bladder cuff-like resection mostly involve upper and lower incisions, which require changing positions and disinfecting the surgical towels twice. The operation time is long, and the amount of trauma is large. Laparoscopic renal ureter and bladder sleeve resection have been gradually adopted by urologists since minimally invasive surgery techniques have been widely used in urology8. The methods for laparoscopic nephroureterectomy and radical resection …
The authors have nothing to disclose.
This study was sponsored by CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences,No. 2018-I2M-1-002.
Laparoscopic imaging system | STORZ | ||
Pneumoperitoneum | STORZ | ||
Ultrasonic scalpel | Johnson | ||
Vascular closure clip | Hem-o-Lock |