Palliative transarterial embolization of renal tumors in 20 patients

Objectives The aim of this study is to evaluate immediate technical and clinical results of palliative transarterial renal embolization in patients with symptomatic renal tumors. Methods Parenchymal embolization of 20 renal tumors was performed in 20 symptomatic patients with hematuria and/or lumbar pain and/or paraneoplastic syndrome. Seven patients were inoperable because of poor general condition, and 15 patients had metastatic lesions. Results Immediate technical success was observed, with post-infarction pain in all patients requiring analgesia in 12 cases (which was successful in 90%); 8 patients had transitory fever. With a median follow up of 8.1 (range 4-27) months, recurrent hematuria was noted in two patients for which partial embolization was initially chosen; pain did not recur in any patients. Conclusions Palliative embolization of advanced symptomatic renal tumors is easy to accomplish with low morbidity. It helps to alleviate invalidating symptoms in a multidisciplinary management of advanced renal tumors.