RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence and related factors of perioperative mortality associated with radical nephrectomy in patients with renal tumours in a tertiary hospital. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study that reviewed the medical records of patients undergoing radical nephrectomy between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2011 in a tertiary university hospital (Cali, Colombia). We measured sociodemographic variables and factors that may be associated with perioperative mortality. The statistical analysis was performed using STATA. RESULTS: We analysed 57 patients who underwent radical nephrectomy, 54.4% of whom were male, whose ages ranged from 14 to 81 years. All tumours had a unilateral presentation; 96.5% of the tumours were solid renal lesions, and 3.5% were cystic lesions. The most frequent histological findings were clear cell (63.2%), papillary (8.7%) and chromophobe cell (5.2%) renal carcinoma. There were no complications in 27 (47.3%) of the patients. According to the Clavien-Dindo classification of surgical complications, 16 (28%) patients had minor (grades i and ii) complications and 9 (15.6%) had major (grades iii and iv) complications, with an overall perioperative mortality (grade v) of 8.7% (5 patients). CONCLUSIONS: The perioperative mortality at 30 days for patients with nonmetastatic renal carcinoma who underwent radical nephrectomy at a tertiary university hospital in Cali, Colombia, was 4.1% (2 patients).