Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2010, 220(4)

Review

Laparoscopic Adrenalectomy: Where Do We Stand Now?

EVRIDIKI KARANIKOLA,³ CHRISTOS TSIGRIS,² KONSTANTINOS KONTZOGLOU¹ and NIKOLAOS NIKITEAS¹

¹Second Department of Propaedeutic Surgery, “Laiko” General Hospital, Athens University Medical School, Athens, Greece
²First Department of Surgery, “Laiko” General Hospital, Athens University Medical School, Athens, Greece
³Vascular Surgery Department, “Elpis” General Hospital, Athens, Greece

Laparoscopic adrenalectomy (LA) has become the procedure of choice for the surgical removal of the vast majority of small sized adrenal tumors (≤ 6 cm), because of its significant and multiple advantages: reduced hospital stay and wound morbidity, decreased transfusion requirements, postoperative pain and complications. The role of LA in patients with large adrenal lesions or potential malignancy remains controversial. The aim of this article is to review the current and up-to-date surgical approaches for LA, which include: 1) transabdominal anterior or flank approach and 2) retroperitoneal technique with the patient in either lateral or prone position. Specific advantages and disadvantages are referred to for each of them. The choice of each of these techniques is determined particularly by the preference and the experience of the surgeon, but other objective criteria must be taken into consideration, such as the size of the adrenal and history of previous abdominal surgeries.

keywords —— Laparoscopic adrenalectomy; transperitoneal approaches; retroperitoneal approaches; surgical techniques

© 2010 Tohoku University Medical Press

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2010, 220, 259-265

Correspondence: Evridiki Karanikola, M.D., Ph.D., Vascular Surgery Department, “Elpis” General Hospital, 7 Dimitsanas street, GR-11522 Athens, Greece.

e-mail:eurokara@med.uoa.gr