Successful Tufts kidney operation Webcast worldwide

BOSTON. Viewers around the world tuned in yesterday to a live Webcast as surgeons at Tufts-New England Medical Center successfully removed a 62-year-old woman’s diseased left kidney.

Throughout the hour-long procedure, which was accessible at http://www.or-live.com, viewers could submit questions by e-mail and see interviews with urology and nephrology experts, including Tufts-NEMC’s Urologist-in-Chief Dr. Gennaro Carpinito, who conducted the surgery.

The procedure, called a hand-assisted laparoscopic radical nephrectomy, is considered the gold standard of care for kidney cancer surgery and is used in at least half of American hospitals. Considerably less traumatic than traditional kidney surgeries, which require an 8- to 10-inch incision, the minimally invasive procedure involves two small abdominal incisions for a camera and surgical tools, followed by a third 3.5-inch incision for the surgeon’s hand to help remove the kidney.

The laparoscopic approach cuts no muscles, significantly reducing recovery time, blood loss and the chance of complications. In addition, the relative ease of the procedure has encouraged kidney donation, tripling the number of donors in the last decade, according to Carpinito.

Broadcast in conjunction with the National Library of Medicine, last night’s surgery was the fourth procedure the hospital has shown online since December 2006.

“Often one of the main detriments to kidney cancers is that people don’t diagnose them soon enough,” Carpinito said. “By making people more aware that there are procedures like this that are minimally invasive, it might spur a lot of people to be screened earlier. I think it is a huge benefit to mankind.”

Although Carpinito has been filmed while performing surgery, last night marked his World Wide Web debut.