Outcome of radiofrequency ablation over partial nephrectomy for small renal mass (<4 cm): a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: A meta-analysis was undertaken to provide evidence-based clinical trials comparing radiofrequency ablation with partial nephrectomy for small renal mass.

Methods: We searched through the major medical databases such as Pub Med, EMBASE, Medline, Science Citation Index, Web of Science and CNKI (Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure Database) and Wangfang (Database of Chinese Ministry of Science & Technology) for all published studies without any limit on language from May 2007 until May 2015. The following search terms wereused: partial nephrectomy, radiofrequency ablation, renal cell carcinoma, small renal tumor or mass.