KIDNEY CANCER
CRYOTHERAPY
The Benefits of Kidney
Cryotherapy
The benefits of renal cancer ablation via cryotherapy are many. Recovery from minimally invasive surgery is often much easier for the patient. The procedure itself is shorter and therefore complications are reduced, including a lower risk of bleeding. Healthy kidney tissue is not disturbed, allowing for maximum retention of kidney function. Multiple small tumors can be treated in one cryosurgical treatment. Image guidance and real-time temperature monitoring usually allow for complete tumor ablation in a single session, but the procedure can be repeated with minimal trauma to the patient if residual tumor is found.
Minimally Invasive Procedure
An advantage of kidney cryoablation is that cryosurgery (freezing) can be performed laparoscopically (with small incisions) or percutaneously (directly through the skin), thus making it a minimally invasive procedure for the treatment of kidney cancer. The minimally invasive nature of the procedure means that it can be performed with minimal blood loss and without a large incision. After surgery, a minimally invasive approach translates into significantly less pain, a shorter hospital stay, and more rapid recovery when compared with open surgery.
Being minimally invasive, cryoablation allows kidney cancer to be treated with much less disruption of patients’ lives. Patients usually are able to return to family, work, and routine activity in less than half the time that it takes to recover from open surgery.
Shorter Procedure with Fewer Complications
Patients who undergo ablation have less risk of some complications, such as bleeding. Clearly, any time the kidney undergoes surgery, there is a chance of excessive bleeding. However, the risk of excessive bleeding is decreased by not having to cut into the kidney as is typically done with partial or radical nephrectomy. Similarly, not cutting into the kidney minimizes the risk of disrupting the kidney’s collection system (the “plumbing” within the kidney which transports urine), which is a complication known as “urine leak.”
Should general anesthesia be necessary for the cryosurgical ablation, a shorter procedure also means less time under its effects. This lessens the chance of the patient suffering from any of the complications related to undergoing general anesthesia.
Preservation of Normal Kidney Tissue
Kidney cancer treatment that allows for the maintenance of adequate renal function is of the utmost importance to the patient’s ongoing quality of life. Because only the cancer is destroyed during cryoablation therapy and normal kidney tissue is spared, remaining renal function is maximized. This means that the kidneys can continue to perform their many jobs more efficiently than if the entire kidney, or a significant part of it, had been removed.
In addition, sparing a portion of the affected kidney creates more options if a new tumor develops in the patient's second kidney, a risk confronting a small number of people with kidney cancer.
Cryoablation is Repeatable
In most cases, image-guided targeted ablation and real time temperature monitoring assure that only one session of cryotherapy ablation is necessary. Should the patient’s cancer recur, or if residual tumor is found on follow-up visits, renal cryosurgery can be repeated at the physician’s discretion with minimal trauma to the patient.
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