Cleveland Clinic First To Perform Nephrectomy Completely Tran...( Urologists d...),Health

Urologists develop scar-less kidney removal procedure.

Cleveland, OH (PRWEB) March 19, 2009 -- Female patients who require the removal of a kidney may now be able to have the diseased organ extracted completely through the vagina, thanks to a new surgical procedure developed by a team of urologists at Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. Jihad Kaouk, Director of the Center for Laparoscopic and Robotic Surgery, and his team performed the first completely transvaginal nephrectomy on March 13. The procedure involved inserting a small, single channel 5 millimeter port in the belly button to inflate the abdomen with carbon monoxide and thread a small scope, which visually assisted with the placement of the vaginal port. Then, the surgical team made a single incision in the vaginal wall and placed a multi-channel port through which the entire surgery was performed. Once the vaginal port was in place, the abdominal port was removed. The kidney surgery took four hours following the insertion of the vaginal port, and the patient was discharged less than 24 hours after the procedure.

"This is a significant clinical step toward natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES), which has been confined to the lab for more than six years," said Dr. Kaouk. "This new approach makes minimally invasive surgery even less invasive and is an important step forward toward scar-less procedures."

Previously reported cases of transvaginal nephrectomy involved performing all aspects of the surgery through a multi-channel port in the belly button using the standard laparoscopic approach. In these cases, the vagina mostly acted as the extraction point for the diseased organ. In the method developed by Dr. Kaouk and his team, the entire surgery is perfo
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