Robot-assisted kidney transplantation: Initial experience from a tertiary hospital in China

Abstract

Background: Robot-assisted kidney transplantation (RAKT) has currently become an effective alternative to open kidney transplantation (OKT), which has long been considered the gold standard for kidney transplant surgery. This study aimed to summarize our initial experience with RAKT and explore its safety and feasibility.

Materials and methods: Ten cases of RAKT, including 8 cases of deceased-donor kidney transplantation and 2 cases of living-donor kidney transplantation, were performed at our center from March 2023 to November 2023. Perioperative clinical data and follow-up results of patients were collected and statistically analyzed.

Results: All RAKT surgeries were performed successfully with no complications. The average operative time was 297.90 ± 65.59 minutes, and the median estimated blood loss was 100 mL. The average serum creatinine level decreased from 918.14 ± 166.63 μmol/L preoperatively to 109.89 ± 29.89 μmol/L at discharge. The postoperative outcomes of RAKT from both deceased and living donors were satisfactory during the follow-up period.

Conclusions: Robot-assisted kidney transplantation is an effective alternative to OKT and is suitable for both deceased- and living-donor kidney transplantations. The short-term postoperative follow-up results were satisfactory, and the postoperative complications were acceptable. Robot-assisted kidney transplantation appears to be a safe and feasible procedure for transplantation teams skilled in OKT and robot-assisted surgery. This study is an exploratory research providing preliminary experience, and future large-sample controlled studies are needed to further verify its safety.

Keywords

Robot-assisted kidney transplantation / Initial experience / Exploratory research

Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Jun Dong for providing technical guidance.

Statement of ethics

This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Ethics Committee of China-Japan Friendship Hospital (approval number: 2022-KY-199). Informed consent was obtained from all participants in this study.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interests.

Funding source

This work was supported by the National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding (nos. 2022-NHLHCRF-LX-03-0302 and 2023-NHLHCRF-LXYZ-04) and the Elite Medical Professionals Project of China-Japan Friendship Hospital (no. ZRJY2023-QM30).

Author contributions

JFW: Designed the study and revised the manuscript;MXZ: Collected the data and wrote the manuscript;ZSD, YZ, YHH: Wrote part of the manuscript;YSD, TYZ, CRS, CZC: Performed the data analysis;All the authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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