Article - Comment

Complications of 2,775 urological laparoscopic procedures: 1993 to 2005

  • Tevfik Sinan Sözen
  • Ali Furkan Batur

Bull Urooncol 2007;6(1):37-40

Purpose: In this retrospective study, the complications associated with urological laparoscopic surgery at a single high volume center during a 12 year period is assessed. Materials and Methods: The study focuses on the complications related with 2775 laparoscopic surgeries done between 1993-2005, by performing a retrospective chart analysis. These laparoscopic surgeries included radical neprectomy(549), partial nephrectomy(345), donor nephrectomy(553), simplenephrectomy(186), pyeloplasty( 301), nephroureteroctomy(105), retroperitoneal lymp node dissection(86), renal ablation(81), adrenalectomy(106) , and radical prostatectomy(463). Complication data were tabulated according to case number, procedure type, patient age, the American Society of Anesthesiologists score(ASA), conversion status, length of hospitalization( LOS), Clavien classification system, and annual complication rate during the study. Fisher's exact and Chi-square tests were performed for statistical analysis. Results: A total of 614 complications (22.1%) were occurred, broken into laparoscopic radical nephrectomy(20%), laparoscopic partial nephrectomy(28%), laparoscopic donor nephrectomy(28%), laparoscopic simple nephrectomy(15%), laparoscopic pyeloplasty(13.3%), laparoscopic nephroureterectomy(40.9%), laparoscopic retroperitoneal lymph node dissection(26.7%), laparoscopic renal tumor ablation(18.6%), laparoscopic adrenalectomy(25.4%), and laparoscopic radical prostatectomy(15%). Total intraoperative and postoperative complication rates were 4.7% and 17.5%, respectively. Vascular injuries were the most common intraoperative complications. Annual complication rates plateaued in the year 2000 and were not significantly different during the ensuing 4 years (p>0.05). Complications related with a greater American Society of Anesthesiologists score as well as a longer hospital stay(p Conclusions: The complication rates for laparoscopic urological procedures in experienced hands at a high volume institution is presented in this study and this study aims to help define the complication rates in the laparoscopic urological procedures.