[History of rachianesthesia and epidural anesthesia in Spain].

Objectives: To show the beginning of spinal and epidural anesthesia in our country and the contributions of Spanish urologists.

Methods: We reviewed books and writings of History of Medicine, Urology and Anesthesia and Doctoral thesis about spinal and epidural anesthesia.

Results: In the 20th century, surgeons also gave the anesthetic drugs to the patients.

[Hand-assisted laparoscopic radical nephrectomy vs. open nephrectomy in the treatment of clinically localized renal cell carcinoma. Comparative study].

Introduction: The description of the first laparoscopic nephrectomy made a revolution in the managing of the benign and malignant renal diseases. Hand-assisted laparoscopy (HAL) was developed with the aim of offering advantages to both patients and surgeons. The aim of the present work is to compare, in our experience, the results offered in the radical nephrectomy by HAL and open surgery, by analysis of surgical time, estimated blood loss during surgery and hospital stay.