Inguinal oblique incision as an alternative route to extract the kidney during laparoscopic donor nephrectomy.

Objectives: Evaluate the advantages of inguinal oblique incision in extracting the kidney during laparoscopic donor nephrectomy.
Materials and Methods: From April 2005 to June 2009, sixty-seven cases of transperitoneal laparoscopic live-donor nephrectomies were performed at our hospital, all data were analyzed retrospectively. All donors were grouped as a test group (n=37, inguinal oblique incision) and a control group (n=30, paramidline or subcostal incision) according to graft retrieval incision selection. Donors were compared with regard to operative time and warm ischemia time, operative blood loss, hospital stay and cosmetic satisfaction. Recipients were compared with regard to graft function and 1-year graft survival rate.
Results: All 67 cases of transperitoneal live-donor nephrectomies were successfully accomplished, without donor death, serious complications, and conversion to open surgery. There were no differences in mean operation time, mean blood loss, mean warm ischemic time, graft function, and 1-year graft survival rate between the groups. But in the test group, the mean hospital stay was shorter, P < .01; and cosmetic satisfaction was higher P < .01.
Conclusions: The inguinal oblique incision is a safe and practical graft retrieval incision in live-donor nephrectomies, and can be thought to be applied generally.