Nephrectomy

Nephrectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of a kidney . It is also called a uninephrectomy because both kidneys are only explanted in very rare exceptional cases .

indication

The kidney is removed, for example, because of irreversible kidney damage in severe injuries, congenital abnormalities, chronic inflammations or malignant kidney tumors . Kidneys are also removed for kidney donation ; a distinction is made between living kidney donation and cadaveric kidney transplantation .

method

The kidney is usually removed via an incision in the flank in an open operation . For some time now, nephrectomies have also been performed with laparoscopic assistance. Here, the kidney is freely dissected laparoscopically and then recovered from the abdominal cavity through a skin incision. Dialysis is required after bilateral nephrectomy ; here the glomerular filtration rate is the result of kidney dialysis.

forecast

Postoperative renal insufficiency has an even greater impact on long-term survival in kidney cancer patients than nephrectomy or tumor resection. That is why today organ-preserving tumor resections are preferred.

history

The Heidelberg surgeons Gustav Simon succeeded on 2. August 1869 the first successful nephrectomy the world in humans. He had previously trained the procedure in animal experiments. He thus proved that a healthy kidney alone can completely take over the elimination of urine in humans.

Animal nephrectomies by the Italian anatomist Giuseppe Zambeccari (1655–1728) showed the functionality of the remaining kidneys. Josef Brandt (1838–1912) performed a subtotal nephrectomy on a 25-year-old man in Budapest (after being stabbed by a knife). Vincenz Czerny performed a partial kidney resection for the first time in 1887.

Web links

Wiktionary: nephrectomy  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Joachim Girndt: "Kidney and Hypertension Diseases in Diabetics", Edition Medicine, Weinheim 1988, ISBN 3-527-15367-5 , page 34.
2. ↑ Dirk Manski: Online textbook of urology. http://www.urologielehrbuch.de/lumbale_nephrektomie.html
3. ↑ Dirk Manski: Online Urology Textbook (with pictures). http://www.urologielehrbuch.de/laparoskopische_nephrektomie.html
4. ↑ Martin Zeier: It was 150 years ago: First successful kidney removal , in: Diatra , Volume 29, Issue 3/2019, p. 39.
5. ^ Website of the Heidelberg University Surgical Clinic on the life of Gustav Simons
6. ↑ Martin Zeier: It was 150 years ago: First successful kidney removal , in: Diatra , Volume 29, Issue 3/2019, p. 39.

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