Laparoscopic adrenal surgery in a Brazilian center

Total and partial laparoscopic adrenalectomy

The Guidelines Project, an initiative of the Brazilian Medical Association, aims to combine information from the medical field in order to standardize producers to assist the reasoning and decision-making of doctors. The information provided through this project must be assessed and criticized by the physician responsible for the conduct that will be adopted, depending on the conditions and the clinical status of each patient.

Laparoscopic Adrenalectomy for Large Adrenocortical Carcinoma

Background:

Adrenocortical cancer (ACC) is a rare disease that is difficult to treat. Laparoscopic adrenalectomy (LA) is performed, even for large adrenocortical carcinomas. However, the oncological effectiveness of LA remains unclear. This review presents the current knowledge of the feasibility and oncological effectiveness of laparoscopic surgery for ACC, with an analysis of data for outcomes and other parameters.

Database:

A systematic review of the literature was performed by searching the PubMed and Medline databases for all relevant articles in English, published between January 1992 and August 2014 on LA for adrenocortical carcinoma.

Discussion:

The search resulted in retrieval of 29 studies, of which 10 addressed the outcome of LA versus open adrenalectomy (OA) and included 844 patients eligible for this review. Among these, 206 patients had undergone LA approaches, and 638 patients had undergone OA. Among the 10 studies that compared the outcomes obtained with LA and OA for ACC, 5 noted no statistically significant difference between the 2 groups in the oncological outcomes of recurrence and disease-free survival, whereas the remaining 5 reported inferior outcomes in the LA group. Using a paired t test for statistical analysis, except for tumor size, we found no significant difference in local recurrence, peritoneal carcinomatosis, positive resection margin, and time to recurrence between the LA and OA groups. The overall mean tumor size in patients undergoing LA and OA was 7.1 and 11.2 cm, respectively (P = .0003), and the mean overall recurrence was 61.5 and 57.9%, respectively. The outcome of LA is believed to depend to a large extent on the size and stage of the lesion (I and II being favorable) and the surgical expertise in the center where the patient undergoes the operation. However, the present review shows no difference in the outcome between the 2 approaches across all stages. A poor outcome is likely to result from inadequate surgery, irrespective of whether the approach is open or laparoscopic.

Laparoscopic adrenalectomy in children

PURPOSE

Reporting on the laparoscopic technique for adrenal disease in children and adolescents has been limited. We review here our experience with laparoscopic adrenal surgery in children.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

19 laparoscopic unilateral adrenalectomies were performed in 10 girls and 7 boys (mean age 3.9 years) during 1998-2011. The clinical diagnosis before surgery was virilizing tumor (n = 8), pheochromocytoma (n = 3), nonfunctioning solid adrenal tumor (n = 3), mixed adrenocortical tumor (n = 2), cystic adrenal mass (n = 1). Unilateral adrenal lesions were 20-65 mm at the longest axis on computerized tomography (12 right side, 7 left side).

RESULTS

The final clinicopathological diagnosis was cortical adenoma (n = 9), pheochromocytoma (n = 3, bilateral in two), neuroblastoma (n = 1), ganglioneuroblastoma (n = 1), ganglioneuroma (n = 1), adrenocortical carcinoma (n = 1), benign adrenal tissue (n = 1). Average operative time was 138.5 min (range 95-270). Blood transfusion was required in one case (5%). No conversion to open surgery was required and no deaths or postoperative complications occurred. Average hospital stay was 3.5 days (range 2-15). Average postoperative follow-up was 81 months (range 2-144). Two contralateral metachronic pheochromocytomas associated with von Hippel-Lindau syndrome occurred, treated with partial laparoscopic adrenalectomy (one without postoperative need of cortisone replacement therapy).

CONCLUSIONS

Laparoscopic adrenalectomy is a feasible procedure that produces good results. It can be used safely to treat suspected benign and malignant adrenal masses in children with minimal morbidity and short hospital stay.

[Laparoscopic adrenalectomy--experience of 10 years]

INTRODUCTION

The laparoscopic approach to the adrenal gland was first reported in 1992. Since then, many publications about this issue have come from Europe, Japan and North America. We reviewed our 10-year experience with laparoscopic adrenal surgery.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Laparoscopic adrenalectomy was carried out in 113 patients, 77 females and 36 males, between January 1994 and January 2004. The age ranged from 1 to 76 years (43.1 +/- 16.2 years). Ten (8.8%) patients were 20 years old or younger, 19 (16.8%) patients had unilateral tumor larger than 4 cm, 25 (22.1%) patients had Body Mass Index > or = 30 kg/m2, and 13 (11.5%) had had previous open upper abdominal surgery. The size of the lesion ranged from 1 to 9 cm (3.3 +/- 1.6 cm). One hundred and sixteen operations were performed, of which 109 were unilateral and 7 were bilateral, adding up to a total of 123 adrenalectomies. Among the 116 procedures, the lateral transperitoneal approach was employed in 113 cases, whereas lateral retroperitoneal approach enabled 3 adrenalectomies.

RESULTS

Unilateral procedures lasted 107 +/- 33.7 min (45-250 min); bilateral procedures lasted 180 +/- 90.6 min (100-345 min); 5 (4.3%) cases were converted to open surgery. Twenty (17.7%) patients suffered complications, being 8 (7.0%) intraoperative and 12 (10.6%) postoperative complications. Six (5.3%) cases were considered major complications. No deaths occurred due to the surgical procedures. Blood transfusion rate was 3.5%. Hospital stay was 5.7 +/- 15.0 days (1-140 days). Follow-up period was 23 +/- 12.8 months (1-60 months) and all these patients were followed for a minimum of 6 months.

CONCLUSIONS

Laparoscopic adrenalectomy is feasible and has excellent results in selected patients.