Background: Laparoendoscopic single-site surgery (LESS) has gained popularity in urology over the last few years. Objective: To report a large multi-institutional worldwide series of LESS in urology. Design, Setting, And Participants: Consecutive cases of LESS done between August 2007 and November 2010 at 18 participating institutions were included in this retrospective analysis. Intervention: Each group performed a variety of LESS procedures according to its own protocols, entry criteria, and techniques. Measurements: Demographic data, main perioperative outcome parameters, and information related to the surgical technique were gathered and analyzed. Conversions to reduced-port laparoscopy, conventional laparoscopy, or open surgery were evaluated, as were intraoperative and postoperative complications. Results and Limitations: Overall, 1076 patients were included in the analysis. The most common procedures were extirpative or ablative operations in the upper urinary tract. The da Vinci robot was used to operate on 143 patients (13%). A single-port technique was most commonly used and the umbilicus represented the most common access site. Overall, operative time was 160 ± 93 min. and estimated blood loss was 148 ± 234 mL. Skin incision length at closure was 3.5 ± 1.5cm. Mean hospital stay was 3.6 ± 2.7 d with a visual analog pain score at discharge of 1.5 ± 1.4. An additional port was used in 23% of cases. The overall conversion rate was 20.8%; 15.8% of patients were converted to reduced-port laparoscopy, 4% to conventional laparoscopy/ robotic surgery, and 1% to open surgery. The intraoperative complication rate was 3.3%. Postoperative complications, mostly low grade, were encountered in 9.5% of cases. Conclusions: This study provides a global view of the evolution of LESS in the field of minimally invasive urologic surgery. A broad range of procedures have been effectively performed, primarily in the academic setting, within diverse health care systems around the world. Since LESS is performed by experienced laparoscopic surgeons, the risk of complications remains low when stringent patient-selection criteria are applied.

Results of clinical applications of NOTES in the IMTN Study showed the feasibility of different methods of this new minimally invasive alternative for laparoscopic and open surgery.

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Urological laparoendoscopic single site surgery can be done with a low complication rate, resembling that in laparoscopic series. The conversion rate suggests that early adopters of the technique have adhered to the principles of careful patient selection and safety. Besides facilitating future comparisons across institutions, this analysis can be useful to counsel patients on the current risks of urological laparoendoscopic single site surgery.

Several minimally invasive surgical techniques for the management of adrenal masses are successfully implemented in urology institutions worldwide. CL and LESS seem to represent the most commonly adopted techniques, whereas ML and RAL are growing at a slower rate. All the MIS techniques can be safely and effectively performed for a variety of adrenal disease.

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Branco AW, Kondo W, Filho AJB, George MA, Rangel M, Stunitz LC. A comparison of hand-assisted and pure laparoscopic techniques in live donor nephrectomy. Clinics. 2008;63:795-800. PURPOSE:To compare hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy and pure laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy techniques in live donor nephrectomy. METHODS:In this retrospective study, we included all patients submitted to hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy and pure laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy between May 2002 and December 2007. The operative data and post-operative courses were reviewed. Information was collected on the operative time, warm ischemia time, estimated blood loss, intra-operative complications, time to first oral intake, length of hospital stay, and post-operative complications. The data were analyzed using Student's t -tests and Fisher exact tests as appropriate, with statistical significance defined as p < 0.05. RESULTS:The means of the operative duration, warm ischemia time and intra-operative bleeding were 83 min, 3.6 min and 130.9 cc, respectively, for hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, and 78.4 min, 2.5 min and 98.9 cc, respectively, for pure laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy (p=0.29, p<0.0001 and p=0.08, respectively). Intra-operative complications occurred in 6% of patients submitted to hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy and in 4.5% of those submitted to pure laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy (p=0.68). Only one patient from each group required conversion to open surgery; one person receiving handassisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy had bleeding and one person receiving pure laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy had low carbon dioxide levels during the warm ischemia period. Compared with patients receiving hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, patients submitted to pure laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy were able to take their first meal earlier (12.5 vs. 9.2 hours, p=0.046), were discharged home sooner (2.8 vs. 1.4 days, p<0.0001) and had fewer post-operative complications (7.5% vs. 0.6%, p=0.04). CONCLUSIONS: Pure laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy had some advantages over hand-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy in terms of the warm ischemia time, time to first oral intake, length of hospital stay, and post-operative donor complications.