A partial nephrectomy refers to a surgical procedure in which your surgeon removes a part of your kidney to treat a disease or injury. After removing a part, the surgeon will also correct the condition by reconstructing your kidney.

Why Do You Need a Partial Nephrectomy?

You may need partial nephrectomy, if you have:

• Kidney cancer.
• Infection.
• Injury.
• Damage from kidney stones
• High blood pressure.
• Birth defects.

What Happens During a Partial Nephrectomy?

During the procedure, your surgeon will give you an anaesthetic and perform the procedure in one of the two ways:

• Open Partial Nephrectomy

During this procedure, your surgeon will make an incision between your hip and ribs. After this, the surgeon will assess the kidneys, correct the condition, and reconstruct the corrected part.

• Robotic Partial Nephrectomy

During this procedure, your surgeon will make an incision on your abdomen. A laparoscope will be inserted through this incision. After this, your abdominal cavity will be filled with carbon dioxide. The gas will expand the area giving enough space to move surgical equipment and access your kidney.

A robot will stop blood flow to your kidney, correct the condition, and reconstruct your kidney.

What Happens After a Partial Nephrectomy?

After the procedure, you will be moved to a recovery room. You may be required to stay in the hospital for one to two days depending on your condition.

If you have been detected with testicular cancer, your surgeon will recommend surgery to remove the testicle in which the tumour has been detected.

Radical Inguinal Orchiectomy

During this procedure, the surgeon will remove both early and more advanced testicular tumours. The procedure will involve:

• Giving anaesthesia.
• Making a small incision in the lower groin.
• Pushing the testicle up from the scrotum and removing it.
• Extracting some tissues and sending them to the laboratory for analysis.

The procedure usually takes about an hour and is performed on an outpatient basis. You can resume your normal activities within one or two weeks.

If your testicle is completely removed, the surgeon may also place a prosthetic testicle made of saltwater enclosed in a silicone shell for cosmetic reasons.

Retroperitoneal Lymph Node Dissection

If your testicular tissue samples suggest a tumour, you may need additional surgery. In such cases, your surgeon will recommend removing the lymph nodes to prevent the cancer from spreading to other parts of the body.

A combination of surgeries will be performed to remove the testicles and abdominal lymph nodes to cure tumours.

What Are the Risks Associated with The Surgery?

Removing the lymph nodes around the testicles may disrupt the nerve pathways controlling ejaculation. This may result in reduced fertility and sexual activity.

Bladder cancer is one of the rarest forms of cancer that begins in the lining of your bladder. The cancer occurs when cells in the tissue lining of your bladder grow abnormally.

What Are the Symptoms of Bladder Cancer?

The common symptoms of bladder cancer include:

• Blood in your urine or haematuria.
• Pain while urinating or dysuria.
• Frequent urination.
• Persistent bladder infection.

How is Bladder Cancer Treated?

Depending on your condition, your surgeon may recommend any of the following treatment procedures:

• Surgery

Surgery is a cornerstone of bladder cancer. Your surgeon may either remove the entire tumour or use high-energy beams to break down the cancer cells. This process is known as fulguration.

Another surgical procedure is called radical cystectomy. During this procedure, the surgeon will remove your bladder and surrounding organs. This is done to prevent the bladder from spreading to the neighbouring organs.

• Chemotherapy

Along with surgery, your surgeon may also administer certain cancer-killing drugs to act as an adjunct to the surgery.

• Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy involves specific medications that attack cancer cells.

• Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy is an alternative to surgery. Your surgeon may combine it with surgery and chemotherapy to completely treat cancer.

• Targeted therapy

In some cases, your surgeon may also recommend targeted therapy. This therapy aims to bring genetic changes to your healthy cells into cancer cells. The growing cancer cells often attack the surrounding cancerous cells and eradicate the cancer.

Kidney cancer refers to an abnormal cell growth in your kidney tissue. If left untreated, this can also spread to other tissues and vital organs.

Types of Cancer Surgeries

Based on your condition, your doctor may recommend a partial nephrectomy or a radical nephrectomy to get rid of cancer or tumours from your kidneys.

• Partial Nephrectomy

As the name suggests, partial nephrectomy refers to only a part of the kidney. This procedure helps in preserving kidney function and is as good as removing the entire kidney for cancer.

The main goal of this surgery is to preserve some kidney function. Although people can function with one kidney, they may develop other conditions including high blood pressure as they age. Such conditions can strain the remaining kidney and cause chronic kidney disease.

• Radical Nephrectomy

In some cases, doctors may remove the entire kidney which is called a radical nephrectomy. This procedure is done when the kidney tumour is too large and has spread to surrounding tissues. In addition to removing the kidney, the surgeon may also remove lymph nodes to prevent the tumour from spreading to other organs.

During this procedure, the surgeon will remove the surrounding fatty tissue and adrenal gland. When one adrenal gland is removed, the other takes over hormone production.

Surgical Approach

Based on your condition, the surgeon may perform the surgery in two forms:

1. Open Surgery.

2. Laparoscopic or Robotic Assisted Surgery

Prostate cancer surgery or prostatectomy refers to a surgery in which a surgeon removes all or part of your prostate gland.

A prostate gland is a small gland that is part of the male reproductive system and it contributes extra fluid to your ejaculate.

What Are the Types of Prostatectomies?

Depending on your condition, your surgeon may follow any of the below procedures for prostatectomies:

• Simple Prostatectomy:

The prostate gland is comprised of two parts viz, the inner portion that grows as you age and an outer part called a capsule. During this procedure, the surgeon removes the inner portion of the prostate while keeping the outer portion intact. This procedure may be performed with a traditional approach or with laparoscopic surgery.

• Radical Prostatectomy:

During this procedure, your surgeon will remove all of your prostate gland. In addition to this, surrounding fat or tissues prostate including seminal vesicles or lymph nodes may also be removed. This procedure is mostly performed with a traditional approach; however, it can also be done laparoscopically.

What Happens After a Prostatectomy?

After a prostatectomy, you will be moved to a recovery area and monitored until your anaesthesia wears off. You may be required to stay in the hospital for 2-3 days. The surgeon may also attach a urinary catheter to allow your urine to move out of your body.

Penile cancer surgery or penectomy refers to the surgical removal of the penis. The surgery is done to treat cancer of the penis.

What Happens During a Penectomy?

If you have a large and invasive tumour on your penis, you will need either a partial or total penectomy.

If the cancer is only present at the tip of your penis, the surgeon may remove the tip or glans and apply a skin graft to the penis tip.

If you do not have too many cancer cells in the region, your surgeon may perform a partial penectomy and try to leave as much of the organ as possible so that you can at least stand and urinate.

On the other hand, a total penectomy will remove the entire penis, including the root that goes into the pelvis. In such cases, the urethra will be connected to a spot in the area between your scrotum and anus and this will require you to sit when you urinate.

In addition to removing penile tissues or penis, your surgeon may also remove the lymph nodes to prevent cancer from spreading.

What Happens After Penectomy?

After the procedure, you will be moved to a recovery room. You will also have a urinary catheter attached to drain your urine for at least a week. You will also be required to stay in the hospital for 2-3 days.

Retroperitoneal lymph node dissection or RPLND is a surgery to remove lymph nodes from the abdomen. Lymph nodes are small structures in your body that help your body filter and fight against a disease.

Why Do You Need an RPLND?

RPLND may be required to prevent the cancer from spreading. This is generally used as a part of testicular cancer treatment. Testicular cancer develops on the testicles. In some cases, the cancer from the testicles may grow and spread to the lymph nodes in the abdomen or other parts of the body. In such cases, the lymph nodes have to be removed to stop the cancer from spreading.

How is RPLND Performed?

RPLND is a long and critical surgery performed with a traditional approach. During the procedure, your surgeon will:

• Give you an anaesthesia.
• Make an incision in the abdomen to remove the lymph nodes.
• Also, remove the testicles.

The removal of the lymph node will depend on the affected side of the testicle. For instance, if your left testicle is affected, the lymph nodes on the left side of the abdomen will be removed.

What Happens After RPLND?

After the procedure, your surgeon will place a drain in your abdomen to remove any extra fluid. The drain will be collected in a bag outside your body for a few days after the surgery. Moreover, you may also be required to stay in the hospital for a few days until complete recovery.