A Novel Haemostatic Agent for Robotic Partial Nephrectomy

In the researchers' words

Kidney cancer is one of only a few cancers with an increasing incidence over the past two decades. Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) accounts for over 85% of all kidney tumours, which makes up 2-3% of all adult malignancies. Approximately, 70% of RCCs are incidentally discovered on axial imaging of the abdomen with \>50% of RCCs being low-stage (T1-T2 N0M0). Despite advancements in drug discovery for advanced RCC, mortality rates have not changed over the past two decades, however for patients with the low-stage disease, surgical extirpation offers excellent 5-year survival rates of 95%. Nephron-sparing surgery (NSS) provides effective curative therapy for patients with localized renal cell carcinoma with the benefit of kidney preservation and excellent cancer-specific survival. However, the most frequent complications during NSS, after tumour resection are bleeding, urinary fistula formation, and ischemic renal damage. More precisely, the urological complication was defined as significant haemorrhage \>500 mL necessitating intervention or transfusion, urine leakage (drainage of greater than 50 mL daily for more than one week with fluid biochemistry compatible with urine) and acute renal failure (resulting in any dialysis, ureteral obstruction or kidney loss). In the field of partial nephrectomy procedures, it is therefore crucial achieving adequate haemostasis intraoperatively…