Robotic-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomies: early experience and review of the literature

With over 80,000 patients in the United States awaiting kidney transplantation, renal transplant surgery continues to evolve with attractive surgical options for living donation, which include laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (LDN) and robotic-assisted laparoscopic donor nephrectomy (RALDN). LDN is currently accepted as the gold standard procedure for living donor nephrectomy; RALDN is an evolving technique and may emerge as a preferred procedure over time. We present our initial experience with RALDN from December 2007 to August 2008. Thirty-five patients who underwent RALND were retrospectively analyzed and compared with 35 age- and time (year)-matched patients who underwent LDN. The parameters analyzed were length of hospital stay (3.2 ± 0.9 days, P