• Miguel S Cabalag, Gregory Bruce Mann, Alexandra Gorelik, and Julie A Miller.
• *Endocrine Surgery Unit, Royal Melbourne Hospital †Epworth Health Care ∥Melbourne EpiCentre, Royal Melbourne Hospital ‡Department of Surgery, University of Melbourne §Royal Women's Hospital, Vic., Australia.
• Surg Laparosc Endosc Percutan Tech. 2014 Feb 1;24(1):62-6.

BackgroundPosterior retroperitoneoscopic adrenalectomy (PRA) was popularized by Walz and colleagues as an alternative approach to minimally invasive adrenalectomy, offering less postoperative pain and faster return to normal activity compared with laparoscopic transperitoneal adrenalectomy (LA). The authors have recently changed from LA to PRA in suitable patients and audited their outcomes.MethodsData were prospectively collected for 10 patients who underwent PRA, and a chart review and telephone interviews were conducted with 13 consecutive patients who underwent LA by the same surgeon. Patient demographics, tumor characteristics, analgesia use, operative and anesthetic time, length of stay, and complications were recorded.ResultsData were collected for 13 LAs and 10 PRAs. Patients' baseline characteristics, including age, BMI, and tumor size, were similar between the 2 groups. There were no conversions to open surgery, transfusions, or deaths. Operative time was similar between the 2 groups. PRA patients required less, inpatient postoperative opioid analgesia compared with LA patients (median 1.25 vs. 23 mg of intravenous morphine equivalent, P=0.003), and had a shorter length of stay (median 1 vs. 2 d, P<0.001). The median total days on opioids were lower for PRA patients compared with LA patients (0.5 vs. 9 d, P<0.001).ConclusionOur initial results supports previously published findings that PRA is a safe procedure, with a relatively short learning curve, resulting in reduced postoperative analgesia use, and reduced length of hospital stay when compared with the laparoscopic transperitoneal approach.

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