EAU 2018: The European Experience on Robot-Assisted Kidney Transplantation: Minimum of One Year Follow Up

Copenhagen, Denmark (UroToday.com) In March 2016, the European Robotic Urology Section (ERUS) was created with the aim to collect data on robotic assisted kidney transplantation (RAKT). While open kidney transplantation (KT) has been the gold standard of treatment for patients with end-stage renal disease, there has been recent increases in the use of the robot-assisted approach. As compared to the open experience, there have been lower levels of morbidity, complications, but with similar technical successes.

Dr. Territo of Fundacio Pigvert Department of Urology in Barcelona, Spain presents an analysis of a prospective database of RAKT performed at 8 European centers. In total, 147 cases were analyzed, of which 77 patients had a minimum of one year of follow-up post-RAKT.

Of the 77 patients included in final analysis, 27 patients were female and 50 were male. The mean age, BMI, pre-transplantation creatinine and GFR were 42 years, 26mg/m2, 563 mmol/L, and 11ml/min, respectively. Dr. Territo and study colleagues are commended for their efforts of utilizing the laparoscopic / robot-assisted approach for kidney transplantation, especially upon considering that only 41/77 of the cases were pre-emptive patients scheduled for the robotic technique.

At one-year follow-up, the mean creatinine was 143 mmol/L and the mean GFR was 57 ml/min. Overall, only one patient reported no graft function (due to graft versus host disease) and one patient reported ureteral stenosis. These outcomes and complications rates are similar (if not better)  when compared to published literature on the outcomes typically related to open kidney transplantation.

Overall, this study represents the largest study of RAKT procedures to date. In this study and in general practices, RAKT appears to be a safe and reproducible surgical procedure. As with many other robotic procedures, however, learning curve may be a significant limitation to the wide-scale uptake of the challenging technique and larger studies are needed to confirm its advantage over the open approach.


Presented by: Territo A., MD Fundaci, Puigvert, Dept. of Urology, Barcelona, Spain

Co-Authors: Breda A. 1, Basile G. 1, Alcaraz A. 2, Musquera M. 2, Doumerc N. 3, Decaestecker K. 4, Desender L. 5, Stockle M. 6, Janssen M. 6, Fornara P. 7, Mohammed N. 7, Siena G. 8, Serni S. 8, Sahin S. 9, Tuǧcu V. 9


Author Information:
1. Fundaci. Puigvert, Dept. of Urology, Barcelona, Spain
2. Hospital Clinic, Dept. of Urology, Barcelona, Spain
3. University Hospital of Rangueil, Dept. of Urology and Renal Transplantation, Toulouse, France
4. Ghent University Hospital, Dept. of Urology, Ghent, Belgium
5. Ghent University Hospital, Dept. of Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, Ghent, Belgium
6. University Saarland, Dept. of Urology, Homburg, Germany
7. University Hospital Halle (Saale), Dept. of Urology, Halle, Germany, 8University of Florence, Dept. of Urology, Florence, Italy
9. Bakirkoy Sadi Konuk Training and Research Hospital Center, Dept. of Urology, Istanbul, Turkey

Written by: Linda M. Huynh, BS, Department of Urology, University of California-Irvine at the 2018 European Association of Urology Meeting EAU18, 16-20 March, 2018 Copenhagen, Denmark