Laparoscopic Kidney Donor Surgery
The Penn Transplant Center offers laparoscopic
surgery (also called laparoscopic nephrectomy)
for donor kidney removal, a less invasive procedure
than traditional surgery. Laparoscopic surgery
can make donating a kidney to a loved one easier:
it offers less pain, a shorter hospital stay,
and a faster recovery for the donor.
People find it easier to ask relatives or loved
ones to consider donating their kidney when
the recovery period is two – four weeks for
laparoscopic surgery compared to the six-week
recovery time required in traditional open surgery.
Knowing they won't miss so much work and that
the procedure is less painful makes it easier
for people to consider donating their kidney.
How is laparascopic surgery for kidney donation
performed?
Laparoscopic surgery is performed through
three small holes underneath the rib cage. The
surgical instruments and the laparoscope (a
long, slender optical instrument containing a
miniature camera) are placed through these holes,
and the surgeon removes the kidney through a
2- or 3-inch lower abdominal incision.
If scarring from previous surgery or extra blood
vessels supplying the kidneys prohibit laparoscopy,
the surgeon will perform an open donor nephrectomy
through a 10-inch incision below the lowest rib
on either the left or right side. Blood transfusions
are almost never needed. This is known as the
traditional open surgery for donor nephrectomy.
The
first robotic-assisted donor nephrectomy
Penn transplant surgeons recently performed the
first robotically-assisted nephrectomy for kidney
transplant in the Philadelphia region. Penn’s
transplant team considers the robot-assisted technique
the next important advance in the evolution of
minimally invasive donor nephrectomy surgery.
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Reviewed by Robert
Grossman, MD
Last updated January 2007
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