Adrenal metastases by renal cell carcinoma. Incidence at nephrectomy.

Recently, there have been questions raised as to the results and feasibility of performing renal-sparing procedures for localized renal cell carcinoma. We reviewed the records of 72 patients treated with standard radical nephrectomy to determine the incidence of adrenal involvement and to determine if adrenal lesions were detectable by radiographic methods preoperatively. Four patients had evidence of adrenal involvement for an overall incidence of 5.5 per cent. All had upper pole lesions. Adrenal involvement in each case was apparent at surgery or on preoperative imaging studies. For patients with middle and lower pole localized renal cell carcinoma who have normal findings on preoperative computerized tomography scans, modified radical nephrectomy sparing the adrenal gland may be a surgical alternative to radical nephrectomy.