Selective renal artery embolization.

Abstract

To the Editor.— I was pleased to see the article on selective renal artery embolization in the treatment of metastatic sarcoma with hematuria by Drs Mariasoosai, Wilson, and Gonick (237:363, 1977). The authors point out that A. F. Lalli 1 and associates were the first to produce infarction of the kidney and lung in dogs using modified dextran. They further cite the treatment of renal adenocarcinoma by embolic occlusion of renal circulation as reported in 1973. 2 However, they neglect to cite the work of Turner and co-workers, 3 which appeared in 1975 regarding this same general technique for the treatment of renal carcinoma and other types of tumors. The authors say that nephrectomy and anesthesia were avoided by the use of the embolization technique. However, the absorbable gelatin they used will not affect the entire vascular tree of that tumor because it will not penetrate to the level of