Urologie pro praxi 2/2021

Robotic surgery in organ transplantation

Minimally invasive surgery is currently a standard procedure in many types of operations. Thus, robot-assisted surgery is coming to the forefront which is actually the successor of laparoscopic surgery. Since the da Vinci robotic surgical system was introduced into the practice and proved successful, there has been increased interest in performing organ transplantations using this system. Using a robotic system, both a living-donor organ retrieval surgery and the recipient operation itself can be performed. Currently, the kidney, liver, and pancreas are retrieved and transplanted this way. More than 700 cases of living-donor nephrectomies and 100 successful kidney transplantations using the da Vinci surgical system have been reported in the literature. However, larger patient series are needed and further randomized trials addressing this topic are required. Prolonged warm ischaemia time and higher costs are currently the major limiting factors associated with this surgical technique.

Keywords: robot-assisted organ transplantation, liver transplantation, kidney transplantation, pancreatic transplantation.