Recently, Dr. Zhu Yuchun, associate professor and leader of adrenal and hypertensive surgery of urology department, successfully performed the first case of “prone-positioned retroperitoneal single-port laparoscopic adrenalectomy for adrenal tumor”. The patient recovered soon after the surgery, and had been discharged.
A 19-year-old female was admitted to West China hospital for diagnosing as“hypertension over a year”. After admission, her computed tomography scan found a left adrenal tumor, and her blood pressure was up to 160/105mmHg. The patient requested minimum surgical incisions while ensuring effectiveness and safety of the surgery. However, the current surgical treatment of adrenal tumors is laparoscopic adrenalectomy via lateral retroperitoneal approach, which needs 3 surgical incisions and causes relatively large trauma. To solve this problem, Dr. Zhu Yuchun reviewed previous studies and organized a multi-disciplinary discussion. Finally, posterior retroperitoneoscopic approach with using single-port access was adopted. With the collaboration of Prof. Wei Qiang (director of urology department), Prof. Luo Jun (anesthesia department) and Ms. Lai li (chief surgical nurse of urology department) and other team members, Dr. Zhu completed the surgery perfectly without any intraoperative complications. The operation time was only 32 minutes and intraoperative bleeding was less than 5ml. The Surgical incision was about 62.5px, which was shortened by about a half compared to a conventional laparoscopic surgery. The patient started oral feeding and got out of bed the first day after the surgery. Then she was discharged 3 days later. The patient is now in good condition and remains normal blood pressure.
Only 2 medical centers in Europe has reported this kind of surgery previously, and this was also the first case in China.
The success of the surgery marked the single-site laparoscopic urology technique of West China Hospital has joined the front ranks of the world. Furthermore, it also laid a valid foundation for carrying out single-site laparoscopic surgeries of upper urinary tract.
