a case of the rupture of an angiomyolipoma on the kidney as the argument for the broader use of modern technology

Abstract

tumoral bleeding. It has been established that the frequency of serious problems is closely related to the size of the tumor. Thus a lesions exceeding 4 cm should be followed-up particularly carefully and if symptoms are significant they will require intervention. The options are usually: partial or total nephrectomy performed openly or laparoscopically, as well as selective embolization of the renal arteries which is preferred by some authors. Most problematic are obviously the borderline cases, as it was in the presented case. Then the urologist may face a fairly difficult dilemma as to what to offer to the patient. In our opinion new technologies that have been recently introduced and are based on ablation of the abnormal tissue with a needle-probe inserted into the lesion under imagining control like radiofrequency ablation (RFA) or cryoablation are very promising. They may widen the range of options that the urologist has in problematic cases when the size of AML is borderline, symptoms are medium and the patient is worried by the fate of his tumor. In the described case the patient was referred for observation, because prophylactic surgery did not seem to be justified. It led to a serious complication and required emergent surgery. In our opinion the situation would have been different if the urologists initially had a chance to use some of the modern ablative technology. CaSe report