HCM CITY — Vietnamese and foreign health experts are meeting at a two-day conference that ends today (July 6) at Bình Dân Hospital in HCM City to discuss the latest techniques used to treat kidney stones and renal tumours.

Prof. Christian Schwentner of the Department of Urology at Deaconess Hospital in Stuttgart, Germany said that laparoscopic nephrectomy was the recommended standard of care. The technique is enhanced with 3-D systems for better effectiveness.

A partial nephrectomy is used for treatment of very small tumours protruding from the kidney’s surface, because renal cell preservation is high, Schwentner said.

Nguyễn Phúc Cẩm Hoàng, deputy head of Bình Dân Hospital, said the hospital used a robot for partial nephrectomy on six patients with small renal tumours between November last year and April this year.

Vietnamese health experts also spoke at the conference about procedures to remove stones with a fiberoptic endoscope.

This technique is used at Bình Dân Hospital to replace traditional open surgery, which can cause bleeding and require long-term post-operative care.

Bình Dân Hospital treats more than 1,500 patients with kidney stones each year, including cases with large stones that can cause damage to kidney function.

If patients do not get timely, professional treatment, large stones can cause complications such as infection and blockages in the urinary tract, kidney failure or even death, according to the hospital.

Hoàng cited reports, including GLOBOCAN 2012, as saying that prevalence of kidney cancer in Việt Nam was 0.9 per 100,000 people.

The number of new incidences of kidney cancer is on average 810 per year, with 630 fatalities each year, in Việt Nam, according to the reports issued in 2012, 2013 and 2014. — VNS