TY - JOUR
T1 - Laparoscopic nephrectomy
AU - Feldman, Naomi
AU - Clayman, Ralph V.
AU - Soper, Nathaniel J.
AU - Dierks, Stephen M.
AU - Darcy, Michael D.
AU - Kavoussi, Louis R.
AU - Meretyk, Shimon
AU - Roemer, Frederick D.
AU - Pingleton, Edward D.
AU - Thomson, Paul G.
AU - Long, Stephanie R.
PY - 1991/10/10
Y1 - 1991/10/10
N2 - To the Editor: In their letter of May 9, Clayman et al.* report the first laparoscopic nephrectomy. They state that a minimally invasive approach was justifiable because the patient was elderly. Their procedure had an operative time of seven hours and required a 1-unit transfusion and a six-day inpatient hospital stay. In addition, the patient was subjected to possible tumor dissemination. A traditional nephrectomy would probably have had less morbidity. The advanced age of a patient should not be used as an excuse to substitute a glamorous experimental procedure when there is a safe, acceptable, tried and true alternative.
AB - To the Editor: In their letter of May 9, Clayman et al.* report the first laparoscopic nephrectomy. They state that a minimally invasive approach was justifiable because the patient was elderly. Their procedure had an operative time of seven hours and required a 1-unit transfusion and a six-day inpatient hospital stay. In addition, the patient was subjected to possible tumor dissemination. A traditional nephrectomy would probably have had less morbidity. The advanced age of a patient should not be used as an excuse to substitute a glamorous experimental procedure when there is a safe, acceptable, tried and true alternative.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0025986694&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1056/NEJM199110103251518
DO - 10.1056/NEJM199110103251518
M3 - Letter
C2 - 1832487
AN - SCOPUS:0025986694
SN - 0028-4793
VL - 325
SP - 1110
EP - 1111
JO - New England Journal of Medicine
JF - New England Journal of Medicine
IS - 15
ER -