Radical Nephrectomy

[Jo Dirt]

My husband has a tumor the size of a softball in his right kidney and needs one. We are being sent to a hospital in a large city because the urologist told us it's a "two man job" and these smaller cities don't have the facilities.

What is the procedure generally like?

[brewerpaul]

This is a pretty major procedure which takes quite a long time. It is, however, very commonly done and patients do well with them.

It's a two man job because there's a LOT of retracting, clipping,cutting etc. Much of this is done by feel in an open case because there really isn't a good approach to all of the blood vessels and ureters. I circulated one in our OR with the urologist and a very experienced RN First assist. It ran about 6 hr as I recall. It's very meticulous and sometimes tedious work, but usually very successful.

Good luck to hubby!

[ShariDCST]

my brother (43) just underwent one of these about 2 months ago, and did fine. it seems his kidney was damaged beyond repair due to stenosis of the ureter at the kidney pelvis, it had been that way for probably most of his life according to the surgeons who treated him, and his kidney swelled up full of backed up urine until it was about the size of a grapefruit. they drained out about a liter of fluid in the or just prior to removing it.

it had displaced other abdominal organs to the left, and pretty much filled his abdomen on the right. we found it odd that nobody else had ever discovered he only had one functional kidney - thank goodness for that - for most of his life - and nobody noticed anything, including him, until it started protruding when he laid on one side.

they had to make quite a large right flank incision to remove it - on him it was large because he's a smaller, more wirey individual - but it took about 19 staples to close the skin. the whole procedure took about 4 1/2 hours, and it took two surgeons, plus assistants, to get the job done.

it took a while for him to start feeling better, but once it started, he went by leaps and bounds, and he's pretty much back to normal now, back to work and feeling much better.

good luck to your hubby and you! keep us posted on how he does!