Oncological Safety of Laparoscopic Surgery for Urological Malignancy: Experience With More Than 1,000 Operations

ABSTRACTPurpose: Although laparoscopy is being increasingly used to treat urological malignancies, there is still concern regarding the induction of local recurrence and port site metastasis. To our knowledge no major clinical study with long-term followup has been presented in the field of urological laparoscopy. We assessed the oncological safety of laparoscopy with emphasis on incidence of local recurrence and port site metastasis, analyzing the risk factors for such events based on a 10-year experience.Materials and Methods: From June 1992 to May 2002 we performed 1,098 laparoscopic procedures for urological malignancies, including 450 radical prostatectomies, 478 pelvic and 80 retroperitoneal lymph node dissections, 45 radical nephrectomies, 22 radical nephroureterectomies, 12 partial nephrectomies and 11 adrenalectomies. In 418 cases of laparoscopic radical prostatectomy pelvic lymphadenectomy was done simultaneously. Of the procedures 917 were performed transperitoneally, including 181 via retroper...