Kidney removal, or nephrectomy, is a surgical procedure for removing a kidney due to reasons such as infection, disease, tumor or injury. A kidney may also be removed for donation to a transplant recipient.

Traditionally, kidney removal has been performed as open surgery, which requires a 10-12 inch incision in the patient’s side, possible removal of a rib and up to 10 weeks in recovery time. More recently, minimally invasive surgical techniques, called laparoscopy, were developed to allow the surgeon to perform the procedure through much smaller incisions. The GelPort^® system is designed to optimize these minimally invasive surgical procedures, giving patients pain reduction and recovery advantages over open surgery. Today, with minimally invasive surgery using the GelPort system, patients undergo about a 3-day hospital stay, 2-3 week recovery, and significant reduction in pain and incision size – a much easier procedure and improved outcome.

What is Minimally Invasive?

The patient’s abdomen is inflated to provide the surgeon ample operating room and a better view of the kidney and surrounding organs. Additional tubes are placed in the abdomen to provide access for the laparoscopic camera and instruments. The surgeon’s hand is then inserted through the revolutionary gel material of the GelPort system and functions as a surgical tool to guide the body’s tissues and laparoscopic devices used to gently remove the kidney. Minimally invasive nephrectomy using the GelPort system is being performed at hospitals around the country.

Kidney Donation

Minimally invasive nephrectomy is likely to increase live kidney donation by dramatically reducing patient hospital stay, post-operative pain, total recovery time, and ultimately, many of the fears associated with kidney surgery.

View the Patient Kidney Donor Video to see how this procedure changed the lives of one family when a daughter donated her kidney to her mother.