Abstract
With the advent of cross-sectional imaging, the incidence of asymptomatic detected small renal masses, ‘incidentalomas’, has increased in the past 20 years. Recent studies have demonstrated that patients with renal masses have worse renal function at baseline and have more comorbidities than the general population. Nephron-sparing surgery allows for maximal preservation of functioning nephrons with comparable oncologic outcomes. Recently, laparoscopic partial nephrectomy has emerged as a minimally invasive nephron-sparing surgical option for treating the appropriately selected renal mass. While open-partial nephrectomy has undisputedly become standard of care for the management of the small renal mass (<4 cm), laparoscopic partial nephrectomy is becoming the preferred option for select patients in institutions in which advanced laparoscopic experience is available.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
Reza Ghavamian is a lecturer/meeting participant for Covidien. The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.