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Irreversible Electroporation (IRE) in Renal Tumors

  • Kidney Diseases (G Ciancio, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Small renal masses (SRMs) have been traditionally managed with surgical resection. Minimally invasive nephron-sparing treatment methods are preferred to avoid harmful consequences of renal insufficiency, with partial nephrectomy (PN) considered the gold standard. With increase in the incidence of the SRMs and evolution of ablative technologies, percutaneous ablation is now considered a viable treatment alternative to surgical resection with comparable oncologic outcomes and better nephron-sparing property. Traditional thermal ablative techniques suffer from unique set of challenges in treating tumors near vessels or critical structures. Irreversible electroporation (IRE), with its non-thermal nature and connective tissue-sparing properties, has shown utility where traditional ablative techniques face challenges. This review presents the role of IRE in renal tumors based on the most relevant published literature on the IRE technology, animal studies, and human experience.

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Correspondence to Govindarajan Narayanan.

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Conflict of Interest

Govindarajan Narayanan is a consultant for Angiodynamics and one-time speaker for Guerbet.

Mehul H. Doshi declares no potential conflicts of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Kidney Diseases

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Narayanan, G., Doshi, M.H. Irreversible Electroporation (IRE) in Renal Tumors. Curr Urol Rep 17, 15 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11934-015-0571-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11934-015-0571-1

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