BACKGROUND: There are few studies that address how to quickly locate the renal vein after processing the renal artery during retroperitoneal laparoscopic radical nephrectomy (RLRN) for renal cell carcinoma (RCC). This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of an easy and effective method to locate the renal vein in RLRN.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Between September 2016 and October 2017, a total of 44 consecutive cases of RLRN were performed. All the surgeries used the proposed study method to locate the renal vein, in which surgeons located the renal artery following the medial arcuate ligament on the posterior abdominal wall, then the surgeon directly searched for the renal vein caudally relative to renal artery when performing left nephrectomy, but cranially when performing right nephrectomy.

RESULTS: Among the 44 enrolled RLRN patients, there were 28 left nephrectomies and 16 right nephrectomies. We found the renal vein in most cases successfully by our proposed method. The renal vein was located caudally relative to the renal artery in 27 cases of the left kidney (96.4%), and was located cranially in 14 cases of the right kidney (87.5%). The mean operative time was 135.0±27.8 minutes. No intraoperative complications occurred. Postoperative complications (fever) developed in 5 patients. Pathological examination revealed: clear cell carcinoma in 34 cases (77.3%), chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (RCC) in 5 cases (11.4%), papillary RCC in 3 cases (6.8%), multilocular cystic RCC in 1 case (2.3%), and oxyphil cell adenoma in 1 case (2.3%).

CONCLUSIONS: Our proposed method to search for the renal vein might be a safe and feasible procedure to accelerate the process of handling the renal pedicle and of great practical significance in RLRN surgery.

Keywords: Carcinoma, Renal Cell, Laparoscopy, Nephrectomy, Renal Veins