RESUMO
Adrenal glands are known to be central to homeostasis and consequently their afflictions are responsible for majorhuman ailments. Laparoscopic adrenalectomy has become the procedure of choice for handling these benign functioning and non-functional afflictions. Recently, literature has documented the feasibility of laparoscopic procedure for even the larger (>5cm) tumors. We present our first-hand experience with ten laparoscopic adrenalectomies done at our center for adrenal masses upto 6cm in diameter.Ten patients with adrenal masses upto 6cm in diameter underwent laparoscopic adrenalectomy at our department between Jan 2010 and Jan 2013. There were 7 males and 3female patients. There were six left sided tumors and four right side tumors with an average tumor size of 4.5cm. Seven out of ten cases had functional tumors. All of the procedures were completed successfully without any major intraoperative complication. The mean (range) operating time was 130 (100-210) min. There was an average (range) blood loss of 200 (150-400) ml. A drain was kept in all the patients and removed mostly on 1st postoperative day. The patients were strictly followed up after the surgery and none of them developed any complication. From our favorable results, we can safely conclude that laparoscopic adrenalectomy is safe and feasible procedure especially for smaller tumors. More experience is needed to tackle the larger size tumors.