Nephrectomy in Children: A Single Center Experience

Background: The surgical removal of the kidney, nephrectomy, is not a minor surgical procedure. It is a major endeavor. Indications for nephrectomy range from benign to malignant pathological conditions. Materials and Methods: This was a retrospective study of children aged 15 years and below who had nephrectomy between January 2016 and December 2020 at the pediatric surgery unit of a teaching hospital in Enugu, Nigeria. The information extracted included the age of the patient at presentation, gender, and predominant presenting symptom and the pathology (indication), duration of symptoms before presentation to the hospital, time interval between presentation and nephrectomy, operative procedure performed complications of treatment, duration of hospital stay and outcome of treatment. Results: Eighteen (18) pediatric nephrectomies were performed during the study period. There were 14 (77.8%) males and 4 (22.2%) females. The mean age of the patients was 6 years with a range of 3 years to 9 years. Nephroblastoma was the most common indication (pathology) for nephrectomy. Nephrectomies were performed more on the left side than on the right. Simple nephrectomy was performed in all the patients. However, children with nephroblastoma had nephroureterectomy. Surgical site infection was the most common post-operative complication. About one-quarter of the patients expired due to tumor metastasis. Conclusion: Nephrectomy is the optimal procedure for neoplasm of the kidney or non-functional kidney. Malignant kidney tumour (nephroblastoma) was the most common indication for nephrectomy in the present study.