Renal Cancer

Renal cancer (renal cell carcinoma) is a diabolic disease when diagnosed late. In the United States, approximately 65,000 new cases are diagnosed each year and some 14,000 patients die from it. Renal cancer does not respond well to radiation and chemotherapy and surgery is the best options when the disease is confined to the kidney.

In recent years, these cancers are diagnosed earlier and earlier in totally asymptomatic individuals purely as a results of routine examination and scanning. These small cancers can mostly be effectively removed without removing the whole kidney. However, the kidney is an organ which a high blood flow and removing any tumour by cutting into it will results in massive blood loss. For this reason, these tumours are commonly removed after the blood supply into the kidney has been temporarily interrupted.

However, this interruption of blood supply has to be strictly limited to a fairly brief interval in order that safe recovery of function can follow. In this very brief period of time, the surgeon has to excise the part containing the tumour, stop all bleeding and repair the kidney. Surgical excision of the tumour bearing portion of a kidney is technically challenging even as an open procedure.

With the Da Vinci® Surgical System, the in-built dexterity and improved orientation from the 3-D vision offer surgeon unique advantages to effect an accurate excision and repair of the kidney through keyhole technique in the required time without compromising kidney function.

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