Nephrectomy

The surgical removal of a kidney. A nephrectomy can be radical, simple, or partial. The kidney, the adrenal gland, nearby lymph nodes, and other surrounding tissue are removed in a radical nephrectomy. Simple nephrectomy is the removal of just the affected kidney. Partial nephrectomy removes the tumor from the kidney, but spares the rest of the kidney. The first reported removal of a kidney was done by the German surgeon Gustav Simon (1824-77). The operation was considered a success because the patient lived. The first nephrectomy had, in fact, been done a year earlier by a Canadian physician, William Hingston, who did not report it, perhaps because the patient died.

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Removal of a kidney. [nephr- + G. ektome, excision]

- abdominal n. transperitoneal removal of the kidney by an incision through the anterior abdominal wall.

- laparoscopic n. removal of a kidney by percutaneous endoscopic technique.

- lumbar n. extraperitoneal n. through a flank, loin, or posterior lumbar incision.

- morcellated n. removal of a kidney in pieces.

- posterior n. retroperitoneal removal of a kidney through an incision in the posterior lumbar muscles, usually with the patient in a prone position. SYN: lumbotomy incision.

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ne·phrec·to·my ni-'frek-tə-mē n, pl -mies the surgical removal of a kidney

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n.

surgical removal of a kidney. When performed for cancer of the kidney, the entire organ is removed together with its surrounding fat and the adjacent adrenal gland (radical nephrectomy). Removal of either the upper or lower pole of the kidney is termed partial nephrectomy.

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ne·phrec·to·my (nə-frekґtə-me) [nephr- + -ectomy] surgical excision of a kidney.