Urological procedures

Laparoscopic urological procedures began with exploration for the undescended testicle and have expanded to the point where almost all open urological procedures have been done successfully by a laparoscopic approach. Over the years, some laparoscopic procedures that were once popular have been abandoned as they failed to show benefit over their open counterparts, e.g., bladder neck suspension and varicocelectomy. On the other hand, many other procedures have come to the fore and are commonly practiced at many major medical centers, e.g., nephroureterectomy, renal biopsy, ureterolysis, and radical prostatectomy. In addition, even cystectomy and diversion have now been successfully done laparoscopically. In this chapter we will focus on two of the more commonly done laparoscopic procedures, one ablative (nephrectomy) and one reconstructive (pyeloplasty).