Kidney Removal

There are two kidneys in our body, which serve as ‘natural filters’ and control the body’s water balance. Various health problems could necessitate the removal of one kidney – which would not impair the person’s ability to lead a normal life. Kidney removal surgery could be partial (and would then also be called kidney preserving surgery) or complete, depending on the type of problem that was discovered.

One of the main reasons for kidney removal, complete or partial, is the development of a cancerous tumor in the kidney. However, cancer is not the only reason for performing such an operation: also a kidney that is not functioning, narrowing of the renal artery, formation of kidney stones, development of many and infected cysts, development of abscesses in the kidney and even the development of certain benign tumors – all these may lead to a decision for kidney removal surgery.

Kidney removal surgery is performed by the open approach (through a large incision in the region of the waist) or by the minimally invasive approach. The latter will be generally only be selected in the case of kidney preserving surgery, during which a relatively small tumor is removed – up to 7 cm in diameter.

In cases where the physician wishes to perform a minimally invasive operation, but the tumor or the region of the kidney that he wishes to remove is not particularly accessible, the operation will be performed using a special robot.

General information about kidney removal

As mentioned above, a person can conduct himself in a routine and good manner even without one of his kidneys, but today, physicians try to perform kidney surgery that ‘preserves’ as much as possible of the kidney’s volume, in order to reduce the degree of trauma caused to the body, and to enable it to adapt to the new situation as rapidly as possible.

Kidney removal operations, whether complete or partial, are considered to be relatively long (up to three hours) and are performed, of course, under general anesthesia. Since this is quite a large organ, located at the back of the abdominal cavity, open operations to remove the kidney are still performed frequently, but the number of these operations performed by the minimally invasive approach is slowly increasing, sometimes also using the Da Vinci Robot.

Preparing for the procedure

The surgical procedure for removing the kidney is, as mentioned above, performed under general anesthesia. You will, therefore, be asked to fast beforehand. You will sometimes also undergo various imaging examinations (chest CT or abdominal MRI) before the operation.

The course of the kidney removal procedure

Before the operation, the physician, in consultation with you, will decide how to perform the procedure – by the open approach or by the minimally invasive approach. As a rule, the more widespread and extensive the problem (e.g. a large tumor that has spread to most parts of the kidney), the higher the chance than an open operation will be performed. If the operation is performed by the open approach, the physician will make an incision in the region of your waist. If the operation is performed by the minimally invasive approach, three or four incisions will be made in the region of the waist, through which the entire operation will be performed.

As mentioned above, when the objective is to perform a partial kidney removal, at a relatively inaccessible point, the operation will be performed using the ‘Da Vinci Robot’, which enables minimally invasive operations to be performed that were considered in the past to be impossible due to technical reasons connected to limitations in movement of the surgeon.
The robot offers a larger range of movement than that possible with the human hand, neutralizes tremor and presents an enlarged, three-dimensional view of the operated area to the physician. It thus allows the physician more room to maneuver and better working conditions, enabling him to utilize the minimally invasive method even in surgery of less accessible points.

In the actual operation, regardless of the method chosen, the physician will remove a part of the kidney or the entire kidney and will send the tissues that were removed for pathological examination. He will sometimes also remove lymph nodes adjacent to the kidney, and sometimes also the adrenal gland.

A partial or complete kidney removal operation takes between two and three hours. About two days later, you will be discharged to your home, and after about ten days, you will be able to resume routine but not a strenuous activity. Lifting heavy weights, intensive physical exercise and the like will be possible only a month-and-a-half or two months after the operation, as per your physician’s decision.

side effects

After the operation, you may experience dizziness or nausea, but these will usually pass after a short time. Sometimes, bleeding or infection could develop after the operation, which will be effectively treated by the medical team. It should be noted that just as is the case in any minimally invasive operation, in this case also, the physician may decide, during the surgical procedure, to convert it into an open operation, for various reasons. One of the risks of this operation is damage to organs adjacent to the kidney, but this occurs very rarely.