ABSTRACT
Introduction Ongoing technical and technologic developments have refined various laparoscopic procedures such that they have become viable alternatives to their conventional open surgical counterparts. With the worldwide acceptance of laparoscopic techniques, initially in the management of upper urinary tract pathology, and more recently for laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, a natural progression has been made to applying these techniques to bladder surgery. In the United States in 2004, bladder cancer was diagnosed in 44,640 men and 15,600 women, leading to 8780 and 3930 deaths, respectively.1
Radical cystectomy is currently the accepted standard of treatment for patients with localized muscle invasive bladder cancer. Since the initial report of laparoscopic radical cystectomy (LRC) with bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy/ileal conduit urinary diversion performed entirely intracorporeally by Gill and colleagues2 in 2000, more than 225 cases from over 20 institutions worldwide have been reported3
