Background and Purpose: Renal-artery occlusion is used to control bleeding during laparoscopic nephronsparing surgery, but there are worries about ischemic damage. We compared the functional outcomes of kidneys treated under warm and cold ischemia.
Patients and Methods: Twelve patients treated with warm ischemia and 14 treated with cold ischemia had renal function investigation 3 to 6 months postoperatively. Four and ten patients, respectively, also had preoperative studies.
Results: In patients treated with warm ischemia, two kidneys had evidence of possible damage, but the kidney with the longest ischemia (56 minutes) was normal. Among patients treated with cold ischemia, function was lost in one case. Parenchymal transit time was prolonged in five patients, but in four cases, this probably was attributable to performance of a contrast-enhanced CT scan the same day. In the fifth patient, an ischemic injury is possible.
Conclusion: The parenchymal transit time is a good indicator of ischemic damage. Nephron-sparing surgery can lead to damage even if the ischemia time is short and cold ischemia is used. More data are needed on the factors determining such injury.
