Robot-assisted renal surgery: current status and future directions

Abstract

This paper examines the current role of robot-assisted renal surgery as complex and partial nephrectomies, including vena cava thrombus, combined nephroureterectomies, living donor nephrectomy, autotransplantation, and difficult anatomy as in patients with obesity or adhesions. Indications for robot-assisted renal surgery are comparable to those of conventional laparoscopic approaches. A reduction in the learning curve leads to a stabilization of the procedure and further increases the number of minimally invasive procedures performed. A Medline literature search for publications on the field of robotic kidney surgery has been performed using the Mesh terms: robotic surgical procedures and kidney. Future directions include progress in robotic technology and instrumentation with further miniaturization of robotic procedures as laparoendoscopic single-site interventions and progress in image-guided robotic surgery.

3D-Printed Cold Preservation Device in Renal Autotransplantation for the Treatment of a Patient With Renal Artery Stenosis

“…Some studies reported the use of laparoscopic and robot renal autotransplantation (RAT). In most studies, the use of laparoscopy is limited and mostly applied for nephrectomy ( Hiess and Seitz, 2016 ; Siena et al, 2019 ; Kishore et al, 2020 ). After nephrectomy, renal vessels are extracted from the abdominal cavity and transferred to the bench table, and a separate incision is required to anastomose the renal vessels with the iliac vessels ( Kubota et al, 2020 ; Pomy et al, 2020 ; Smith et al, 2020 ).…”