Introduction: Nowadays, the standard treatment for upper tract transitional cell carcinoma is open nephroureterectomy, by double lumbar and iliac approach, with peri-meat bladder cuff excision. Since the first laparoscopic nephroureterectomy was performed, several surgical teams were interested by this approach for the treatment of the upper tract transitional cell carcinoma.
Objective: To plead for retro-peritoneoscopic nephroureterectomy and to assess the surgical indications.
Material and method: Were analyzed the results of the recent published series on nephroureterectomy for upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma. Were included studies on conventional, laparoscopic and retro-peritoneoscopic nephroureterectomy, with at least 10 cases, published after 2000.
Results: The advantages of retro-peritoneoscopic nephroureterectomy are: minimum blood loss, reduced analgesic intake, a shorter hospital stay and a faster return to previous activities, lower rate of intra- or postoperative complications compared with trans-peritoneal laparoscopy or conventional surgery. With a proper case selection the oncologic safety of the retro-peritoneoscopy is equivalent with open surgery.
Conclusions: On short term, retro-peritoneoscopic approach shows similar oncological outcome with other techniques. Retroperitoneal laparoscopic nephroureterectomy is a viable alternative to conventional or trans-peritoneoscopic procedure, with clear cut benefits for the patient. Retro-peritoneoscopy is associated with a low morbidity.