To state it clearly, nephrectomy is the surgical procedure to remove damaged kidneys. Whether it is kidney cancer, or there are any other injuries or diseases, nephrectomy can treat you by removing part or the entire kidney. Before knowing about the cost of nephrectomy in India, you should know more about the treatment procedure and its benefits and potential risks.
Kidneys are one of the vital organs of the human body that filters water and other waste from your blood, purifies it, produces urine and hormones and maintains the number of minerals in your body. When your kidneys fail to do these, your blood gets polluted which can cause serious problems. After checking the health of damaged kidneys, nephrectomy is followed. Today, you will get an overview of nephrectomy.
Types of Nephrectomy
Usually, there are two types of nephrectomy treatment-
- The Partial Nephrectomy– As the name suggests, this method is followed to remove only the damaged parts of the kidney.
- The Radical Nephrectomy– It is followed to remove the entire kidney along with the fat tissue around the kidney, ureter and adrenal gland. If both kidneys are removed at the same time, that is known as bilateral nephrectomy. In this process, a healthy kidney is removed from a donor and transplanted. This is known as donor nephrectomy.
Procedures Followed during Nephrectomy
Usually, patients are given general anesthesia during nephrectomy. Three types of surgical processes are followed-
- Open surgery
- Robotic surgery
- Laparoscopy
In case of laparoscopic surgery, 3-4 small incisions are made in the abdomen and a fiber-optic technology is used to operate. This is less invasive than open surgery and the patients can recover faster. In this method, the kidney is removed internally and placed in a bag. Then, it is removed through one of the incisions.
Open nephrectomies are time-consuming as an open incision is made at the side of abdomen and sometimes, also in the midline. Often, a rib may be needed to remove to perform the surgery. Once the ureter and the kidney are being removed through an incision, the cut is again sealed by stitches.
Aftercare and Recovery
Nephrectomy is a serious surgery and it takes 2 to 4 hours to complete. After the surgery, the patient has to be taken the best care of to aggravate recovery rate. Once the surgery is done, the healthcare team immediately checks out your blood pressure, water balance, and presence of electrolytes. You will be given pain reliever as you may feel a pain around the incisions. You will also be guided to practice some breathing exercise so that breathing, coughing, etc. don’t create pressure around the incisions. You may need to be in the hospital for 7 days almost and you will be instructed to do light activities when you feel to do it. You should not do any strenuous activities or lift anything heavy for 6 weeks after the surgery.
Here you get enough information about nephrectomy. if you have gone through the surgery or anyone is in the condition, you should take every step by consulting your doctor.