ABSTRACT
During the early 1990s, pioneering work by Clayman and Gaur established the early technique and equipment that allowed retroperitoneal laparoscopy or retroperitoneoscopy to expand into extirpative surgery (Table 1). Initial problems with inadequate insufflation and dissection of the retroperitoneum were elegantly overcome by Gaur et al. with their description of atraumatic balloon dissection of the retroperitoneal space (1,11,12,14). Historically, these early reports and, similarly, the important early transperitoneal laparoscopy technical reports were all too often met with skepticism by the general urologic community.
