A history of partial nephrectomy for renal tumors.

PURPOSE: This article records the history of nephron sparing surgery for renal tumors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Multiple biomedical databases were queried. Original sources were reviewed to document the history of partial nephrectomy.

RESULTS: For more than a century partial nephrectomy evolved as treatment for renal tumors, first by accident, then rejected as a planned procedure in favor of radical nephrectomy, later in mandatory cases of solitary kidney, poor renal function or bilateral renal tumors and then to an accepted elective procedure in cases with a healthy opposite kidney. Partial nephrectomy became widely accepted only recently for many renal tumors due to parallel advances in tumor biology, radiological imaging and surgical technology.

CONCLUSIONS: The history of partial nephrectomy is a timely story setting important precedents for understanding current and future strategies to treat changing patterns of renal neoplasms.