Complications of ablative renal procedures

Increasing use of sonography, computed tomography (CT), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has led to a rapid rise in the discovery of small renal tumors and an increase in detection of renal cell cancer (RCC). Although these incidentally discovered masses tend to be smaller and of lower grade than symptomatic lesions [1, 2], the majority (65-80%) of these tumors are renal cell carcinomas (RCC) when pathologically analyzed [3]. In addition, nearly 60% of these lesions will exhibit growth during active surveillance (mean 0.26 cm/year), such that given a long life expectancy, lesions in younger patients may grow sufficiently to become symptomatic or to metastasize [4].