[Robotic kidney transplantation]

Abstract

Objective: Renal transplant surgery has not undergone any major changes until a few years ago, probably due to the technical difficulty involved in performing a laparoscopic transplant. With the introduction of robotic technology, the difficulties derived from laparoscopic surgery in certain procedures have been reduced, so we can now offer a minimally invasive approach to kidney recipients.

Methods: Review of published literature on robotic kidney transplantation.

Results: Since the first robot-assisted renal transplantation in 2009, several hundred cases have been performed. The different series of published cases, although with different surgical techniques, show initial functional results comparable to conventional open surgery. Despite this evidence, there are no comparative quality studies that confirm this hypothesis.

Conclusions: Robotic renal transplantation is a feasible surgical technique with interesting functional results. As a minimally invasive route, it is a promising option to reduce the surgical morbidity inherent to the renal transplant.