[Laparoscopic adrenalectomy].

Minimally-invasive adrenalectomy is a new and attractive procedure, which has advanced to the method of choice in the surgical treatment of benign adrenal diseases. This technique is contraindicated in the treatment of adrenal malignancies. The endoscopic removal of large benign adrenal tumors (> 6-8 cm) may be difficult. The preoperative management of the patients does not differ from the preparation for conventional adrenalectomy. Like in open adrenalectomy several different endoscopic approaches to the adrenals have been described: the transperitoneal approach with the patient in supine position, the transperitoneal approach in lateral position, the retroperitoneal approach in lateral position and the retroperitoneal approach in prone position. Excellent results have been achieved with all four techniques. The approaches with the patient in lateral position have the disadvantage that in case of bilateral adrenalectomy the patient has to be repositioned during the operation. Large tumors are more difficult to be removed with the retroperitoneal techniques, because of the limited space in the retroperitoneum. Operative times and conversion rates have been markedly reduced with increasing experience with these techniques.