Background: High body mass index (BMI) and visceral obesity were reported to be associated with prolonged transperitoneal laparoscopic radical nephrectomy (LRN); however, factors that prolong retroperitoneal LRN remain unknown. We therefore investigated factors associated with prolonged retroperitoneal LRN performed by non-expert surgeons.
Methods: We defined non-experts surgeons as surgeons not certified to perform laparoscopic surgery by the Japanese Society of Endourology. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 59 consecutive patients with renal cell carcinoma treated with retroperitoneal LRN performed by non-experts at our hospital between 2014 and 2019. Associations of surgical duration with age, sex, BMI, visceral fat area (VFA), subcutaneous fat area (SFA), laterality and location of the tumor, length of the major tumor axis (tumor length), clinical T stage, ipsilateral adrenalectomy and specimen weight were analyzed using Spearman rank correlation coefficients.
Results: Surgical duration positively correlated with ipsilateral adrenalectomy (rs = 0.3162, p = 0.0147) and specimen weight (rs = 0.3103, p = 0.0168) but not with BMI (rs = 0.2016, p = 0.1257) or VFA (rs = 0.0185, p = 0.8894).
Conclusions: Ipsilateral adrenalectomy and specimen weight were associated with prolonged retroperitoneal LRN, when performed by non-expert surgeons.
Keywords: laparoscopic radical nephrectomy; non-expert; retroperitoneal approach.