Specifically, Mayo Clinic researchers found fellowship-trained surgeons who practice in academic medical centers with high volumes of patients with kidney tumors were 70-80 percent more likely to follow American Urological Association guidelines by recommending partial nephrectomy. Surgeons in private practice who see few patients with kidney tumors more often offered radical nephrectomy: removal of the entire kidney.
The study shows that as kidney tumors get larger and more complex, all surgeons tend to offer a radical nephrectomy. However, the tumor complexity that may result in one surgeon recommending total removal of the kidney may be well below a more experienced surgeon’s threshold.
Read the Mayo Clinic news release about management of small kidney tumors.
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