Surgeons using this technique are able to avoid extensive cutting of muscles and nerves by instead inserting narrow tubes through four small holes, or ports, in the donor's abdomen, said Ricardez' surgeon, Dr. Howard N. Winfield, who practices with UCSF Stanford Health Care and is an associate professor of urology at Stanford University School of Medicine. We don't have to cut through as many muscles and nerves as we do with conventional surgery to reach the kidneys.
Early results indicate that it is safe and the organs are transplanted just as successfully.
Using tiny laparoscopic instruments inserted through the tubes, surgeons cut away the kidney from surrounding tissue, leaving only the major blood vessels to feed the organ until the last possible moment. Next they staple shut, and then sever, the blood vessels. Immediately the surgeons insert a retractable, synthetic sack through one of the ports. The sack captures and sweeps up the kidney, much as a butterfly net collects an insect. For more than four years, surgeons have used laparoscopic techniques to remove diseased kidneys, Winfield said, but the April 29 operation marked the first time surgeons in the Bay Area have put together the skills and resources needed to remove a donor kidney intact - healthy and ready to be transplanted.