Perioperative Surgical Morbidity of Laparoscopic Transperitoneal Adrenalectomy in the Treatment of Adrenal Masses
Abstract
Background: Laparoscopic adrenalectomy has become the gold standard for the treatment of benign lesions of the adrenal glands [1,2]. The aim of this study is to evaluate the perioperative surgical morbidity of laparoscopic transperitoneal adrenalectomy for the treatment of adrenal masses less than 6 cm in size.
Material and methods: This is a prospective descriptive single-centre study of perioperative morbidity of transperitoneal laparoscopic adrenalectomy of 36 adrenal masses less than 6 cm in size, performed over a two-year period.
Results: The average age of the patients was 44.2 ± 10.1 years, with a sex ratio of 0.4; the average BMI was 26.5 ± 4.5 kg/m2; the abdominal-pelvic surgery background was found in 19.4% of the cases. The average size of the lesions was 25.86 mm. The indication for surgery was the secreting nature of the adrenal masses in 32 patients and the suspicion of malignancy on imaging in 4 patients. The average operating duration was 115.56 ± 37.5 min and the average blood loss was 36.8 ± 50.1 ml. The average hospital stay was 2.3 ± 1.1 days (1-3 days). Postoperative complications occurred in 8.4% of the patients; they were all Clavien-Dindo grade 2 and were generally benign.
Conclusion: Adequate patient preparation, with meticulous surgical technique, is the key to a good patient outcome. Treatment outcomes do not depend on the experience of a one surgeon, but on the experience of the whole team involved in perioperative care.