ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the decade, Clayman and associates1 pioneered laparoscopic nephrectomy, when they removed a renal oncocytoma in 1990. Almost 1 year later, Coptcoat and coworkers2 used the same technique for a radical exstirpation of a T2 renal cell carcinoma. In 1992, Chiu and associates3 reported on laparoscopic nephroureterectomy for malignant disease. This technique has become one of the most innovative and successful challenges to the conventional, and traditionally gold standard, open approach, and currently this option is the surgery of choice in many urology centers all over the world, particularly focused towards T1 tumors4.
