Tumour contact surface area as a predictor of postoperative complications and renal function in patients undergoing partial nephrectomy for renal tumours

The aim of the study was to evaluate the ability of original tumour contact surface area (CSA) to predict postoperative complications and renal function impairment in a series of patients who underwent elective partial nephrectomy (PN) for renal masses. Tumour CSA value correlated with important postoperative variables such as operating time, the zero- ischaemia technique, WIT, EBL and PCE > 20%. At multivariable analyses, tumour CSA was found to be an independent predictor of postoperative renal function. Conversely, PADUA score outperformed tumour CSA in predicting postoperative complications after PN. Both tumour CSA and PADUA score, however, had a low accuracy in predicting postoperative complications and renal functional impairment. The complexity of the formula by Leslie et al. to calculate the tumour CSA value is a potential limitation of its diffusion and application in clinical practice.