Localized kidney tumors can be surgically treated with either nephron-sparing surgery (NSS) (open and laparoscopic) or radical nephrectomy (RN) (open and laparoscopic). Several studies investigated the effect of these four surgical interventions in terms of perioperative and postoperative complications. However only a little of them had focused on their impact these methods on quality of life. Current review is concerned on questioning each procedure’s impact on quality of life and general wellness. These are evaluated by some of the well-known tools like the EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire-C30 (EORTC QLO-C30), SF-36, FACT-G. Among the surgical techniques the NSS techniques appears to be more successful as compared to RN techniques concerning their impacts on quality of life. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the quality of life of patients before surgery is very important in determining the quality of life of patients after surgery. Unfortunately, there is insufficient published material comparing a laparoscopic surgical approach to an open surgical approach in the treatment of localized kidney tumors in terms of impact on quality of life and risk of perioperative and postoperative complications. In this sense, there is need for additional research in order to make such a comparison.

Keywords: Kidney cancer, nephron sparing surgery, laparoscopic surgery, open surgery, quality of life